Mothers misunderstand questions on a feeding questionnaire

Feeding questionnaires have not consistently identified mothers' beliefs or behaviors associated with preschool children becoming overweight. One reason may be that mothers do not understand the constructs in the questions in the way intended by the developers of the questionnaire. This study assessed items on the Preschooler Feeding Questionnaire (PFQ)--a maternal questionnaire about feeding practices and beliefs relating to the weight status of preschoolers. Seven audio-taped interviews were conducted with African American mothers of 24-59 month-old children in Chicago enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Questions in the PFQ were interpreted by respondents to mean something other than what was intended. In particular, the constructs difficulty in child feeding, pushing the child to eat more, and using food to calm the child were present among the mothers but not captured by items on the questionnaire. Thus, qualitative interviewing could help to match the intention in asking a question with its interpretation by respondents. A mismatch may contribute to our low level of understanding about the causes of early obesity.