Objective: To determine the reliability and validity of scales measuring low-fat milk consumption self-efficacy and norms during school lunch among a cohort of 5th graders.
Design: Two hundred and seventy-five students completed lunch food records and a psychosocial questionnaire measuring self-efficacy and norms for school lunch low-fat milk consumption during the fall and spring semesters of the 1998-1999 academic year. Test-retest reliability was assessed in participants who also completed the questionnaire in the spring semester (n = 262). Principal component analyses identified and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed latent variables. Bivariate correlations measured construct validity.
Setting: Houston-area middle school.
Subjects: Fifth graders (n = 275) from one middle school in southeast Texas.
Results: Two scales measuring psychosocial influences of low-fat milk consumption were identified and proved reliable in this population: milk self-efficacy and milk norms. Milk self-efficacy and norms were positively correlated with milk consumption and negatively correlated with consumption of sweetened beverages.
Conclusions: These questionnaires can be used in similar interventions to measure the impact of self-efficacy and norms for drinking low-fat milk during school lunch.