Development and validation of a Food Preoccupation Questionnaire

Objective. Existing Food Preoccupation Questionnaires do not rake account of food-related thoughts that have a positive emotional valence We report on the development and validation of a questionnaire that provides independent assessments of thought frequency and emotional valence (positive, negative of neutral) Method Ill Study I questionnaire items were validated against a three-day diary measure with 40 males and females Ill Study 2 the questionnaire was administered to 130 males and females alongside a range of other measures Results The questionnaire showed good construct validity, internal reliability, and test-retest reliability Dieters and females scored higher on frequency and negativity subscales There was also a significant interaction between sex and diet status oil thought frequency, with females showing a stronger relationship between the two Discussion The questionnaire should be useful for exploring the cognitive impact of dieting and relationships between food preoccupation, food processing biases arc) overeating (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.