Exploratory validation of the Fruit and Vegetable Neophobia Instrument among third- to fifth-grade students

Children’s unwillingness to try new foods, or food neophobia, may impact dietary behaviors. As part of an effort to evaluate Farm to School programs, the Fruit and Vegetable Neophobia Instrument (FVNI) was developed to measure student attitudes toward new fruits and vegetables. A self-administered, paper/pencil, 18-item questionnaire, the FVNI was adapted from the Food Neophobia Scale. The FVNI has two subscales: a fruit subscale that asks about a child’s willingness to try new fruits in different circumstances and an analogous vegetable subscale. The FVNI was administered to 1485 third-through fifth-grade students (ages 8–10 years) from nine schools in two states at the start of the 2009–2010 school year. Data analysis used factor analyses, reliabilities, and LISREL structural equation models. The FVNI exhibited a two-factor structure and strong measures of model fit (χ2/df = 5.36; Goodness of Fit = 0.92; Adjusted Goodness of Fit = 0.89; Non-Normed Fit Index = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.07; and RMSR = 0.052). In this exploratory analysis, the FVNI proved to be internally consistent in assessing third-through fifth-grade students’ fruit and vegetable neophobia.

► A children’s attitudinal Fruit and Vegetable Neophobia Instrument (FVNI) was developed.
► The FVNI was administered to 1485 third-through fifth-grade students (ages 8–10 years).
► A modified two-factor FVNI model was superior to two other models.
► The two FVNI subscales (fruit and vegetable) can be used together or separately.