Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 57, Issue 2, October 2011, Pages 365-376
Appetite

Research report
Development and validation of an eating norms inventory. Americans’ lay-beliefs about appropriate eating

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.308Get rights and content

Abstract

What do American adults believe about what, where, when, how much, and how often it is appropriate to eat? Such normative beliefs originate from family and friends through socialization processes, but they are also influenced by governments, educational institutions, and businesses. Norms therefore provide an important link between the social environment and individual attitudes and behaviors. This paper reports on five studies that identify, develop, and validate measures of normative beliefs about eating. In study 1 we use an inductive method to identify what American adults believe are appropriate or desirable eating behaviors. Studies 2 and 3 are used to purify and assess the discriminant and nomological validity of the proposed set of 18 unidimensional eating norms. Study 4 assesses predictive validity and finds that acting in a norm-consistent fashion is associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI), and greater body satisfaction and subjective health. Study 5 assesses the underlying social desirability and perceived healthiness of the norms.

Highlights

► Creation of a comprehensive inventory of 18 eating norms held by Americans. ► Discriminant validity with respect to eating attitudes. ► Nomological validity with respect to personality, social desirability, and healthiness. ► Predictive validity with respect to BMI, body satisfaction, and subjective health.

Section snippets

Study 1: identifying eating-related normative beliefs

The objective of study 1 was to generate a comprehensive inventory of Americans’ lay beliefs about desirable or appropriate eating behaviors. Three hundred and eighty members of an online panel of American adults were recruited to participate in a study on “eating behaviors” in return for $5. Participants were asked to identify any “rules or guidelines related to eating that come to mind” and were provided with space to type as many or as few responses as they wished. We used the term “rules”

Study 2: scale development

After eliminating the “other” norm category, we created an inventory of 149 items to represent the remaining 16 norm categories. Item wordings were often direct quotes or variations of statements made by study 1 participants. We recruited a sample of 416 American adults from the same online panel used in study 1 to respond to the initial items in the norm inventory. Eighteen cases were eliminated because of missing data leaving us with a final n = 398. As with all subsequent studies using this

Study 3: scale purification

The purpose of study 3 was to further purify the items in the eating norm inventory and to assess their discriminant and nomological validity. Before conducting study 3 we performed a qualitative pre-test with a convenience sample of three adults. The pre-test enabled us to improve the wording of several items and revealed that the current question stem was problematic because respondents interpreted strong agreement with “I should …” statements to mean that they needed to change their

Study 4: predictive validity—relating norms to eating behaviors, body satisfaction, and subjective health

Study 4 is designed to assess the properties of the proposed measures on a new sample and to test the predictive validity of the proposed measures on health-related and psychological outcomes of interest. We focus on self-reported body satisfaction, subjective health, and BMI as eating consequences of interest to consumers, policymakers in government and education, and the business sector. Our hypotheses are based on a functional perspective, which asserts that norms develop and are reinforced

Study 5: health and social desirability dimensions of eating norms

The purpose of study 5 was to further assess the nomological validity of the eating norm inventory based on a functionalist perspective. A factor-analytic approach was used to place the norms in two-dimensional space based on their social desirability and perceived health benefit ratings (Myers, 1996). We selected these two dimensions because of their prominence in the literature as explanations for social effects in food and health domains (Herman and Polivy, 2005, Knäuper et al., 2005, Snow

General discussion

The research is the first to create a comprehensive inventory of what Americans’ typically believe is appropriate or desirable when eating. We conducted five studies to first identify Americans’ lay-beliefs about eating, and then to develop, purify, and validate measures of these beliefs. We found significant associations between our measures and trait conscientiousness, the cognitive restraint component of eating attitudes. We also found that norm-consistent behaviors were negatively

Limitations and directions for future research

Although the inventory of norms identified in study 1 is extensive it certainly does not include all of the norms governing American eating behaviors. The inductive methodology used in study 1 encouraged participants to identify any and all relevant norms using everyday language, but it is possible that they are either unable or unwilling to articulate some of their beliefs because of social desirability bias. It would be useful to employ projective techniques to uncover deep-seated thoughts,

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    The authors would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding support.

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