Examining elementary school-aged children's self-efficacy and proxy efficacy for fruit and vegetable consumption

Karly S. Geller, David A. Dzewaltowski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Children's self-efficacy for fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) and proxy efficacy to influence others to make fruit and vegetables (FV) available may influence their FVC. A previous investigation has demonstrated that self-efficacy for fruit consumption, self-efficacy for vegetable consumption, proxy efficacy to influence parents to make FV available, and proxy efficacy to influence after-school staff to make FV available can be measured with four independent but related scales. The purpose of the present investigation is to confirm this factor structure and determine if the scales were invariant across gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) subgroups of children attending after-school programs. Results provide further validity evidence for the four correlated scales. In addition, results confirm measurement invariance across gender, SES, and ethnicity, confirming the unbiased generalizability of the current measure to these demographic groups. Lastly, tests of population heterogeneity reveal no meaningful differences in self- and proxy efficacy among gender, SES, and ethnicity subgroups.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)465-478
Number of pages14
JournalHealth Education and Behavior
Volume37
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • fruit and vegetable consumption
  • invariance
  • self-efficacy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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