Examining elementary school--aged children's self-efficacy and proxy efficacy for fruit and vegetable consumption

Abstract

Children's self-efficacy for fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) and proxy efficacy to influence others to make fruit and vegetables (FV) available may influence their FVC. A previous investigation has demonstrated that self-efficacy for fruit consumption, self-efficacy for vegetable consumption, proxy efficacy to influence parents to make FV available, and proxy efficacy to influence after-school staff to make FV available can be measured with four independent but related scales. The purpose of the present investigation is to confirm this factor structure and determine if the scales were invariant across gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) subgroups of children attending after-school programs. Results provide further validity evidence for the four correlated scales. In addition, results confirm measurement invariance across gender, SES, and ethnicity, confirming the unbiased generalizability of the current measure to these demographic groups. Lastly, tests of population heterogeneity reveal no meaningful differences in self- and proxy efficacy among gender, SES, and ethnicity subgroups.

Figures

Figure 1

Path diagram of model, including standardized factor scores and correlations. NOTE: The table includes mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis statistics for self-efficacy for fruit (SEFC), self-efficacy for vegetables (SEVC), proxy efficacy from parent (PEFV-P) and proxy efficacy from after-school staff (PEFV-S). All indicators measured on scales ranging from 1 to 3 (higher scores reflect higher levels of the assessed latent construct); N = 232.