Original ArticlePsychometric properties for the Children's Power of Food Scale in a diverse sample of pre-adolescent youth

PurposeThe Children's Power of Food Scale measures appetitive responsiveness across three domains, food available, food present, and food tasted but not eaten, and a total aggregate score. Although validated in adult populations it has not been tested in youth. The purpose was to establish psychometric properties for the Children's Power of Food Scale (C-PFS) for use in youth.MethodsSix content experts were recruited to establish content validity (CVI). Reliability was established using 2-week test-retest procedures following lunch period in 47 ethnically diverse 10-14 year olds.ResultsCVI for the aggregate score was 0.87. Factor and aggregate score Cronbach's alphas were 0.61-0.89. Intra-class correlation factors scores were 0.28-0.68. Kappa (κ) ranged from 0.19 to 0.69 for individual questions.ConclusionsThe C-PFS may serve as a useful instrument to identify youth more vulnerable to food preoccupation and overconsumption given the obesogenic food environment. Factor 2, food present not tasted, should be interpreted with caution in English language learners.