Parental practices perceived by children using a French version of the Kids’ Child Feeding Questionnaire

About 18% of 6–11-year-old French children are overweight, of whom 3.3% are obese. Parental feeding practices, especially restriction and pressure-to-eat, seem to promote overeating in children. Since no tool was available for the perception of parental feeding practices of French children, our aim was to validate a French version of the Kids’ Child Feeding Questionnaire (KCFQ, Carper, Orlet Fischer, & Birch, 2000), and to determine the relationship between KCFQ's dimensions and children's standardised body mass index (BMI z-scores). The questionnaire was completed by 240 normal-weighted or overweight children between the age of 9 and 11. The validation was based on a confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistency of factors was confirmed using Cronbach's coefficients. After deleting some items (3 for the pressure-to-eat subscale and 3 for the restriction subscale), the two-factor model (pressure-to-eat, restriction) provided an acceptable fit (χ2 (34) = 64; RMSEA = .06; CFI = 0.93; NNFI = .90), and satisfactory internal consistency. Children's perception of restriction was significantly and positively correlated with BMI z-scores (r = 36, p < .001), whereas their perception of pressure-to-eat was not significantly associated with BMI z-scores (r = −.09, p = .24). This scale appears to be a sound tool for highlighting children's perceptions of parental feeding practices, and their links to weight status.

► A French version of the Kids’ Child Feeding Questionnaire is validated.
► Child perception of parental restriction is positively correlated with child BMI.
► Child perception of pressure-to-eat is not significantly correlated with child BMI.