Food rejection in young children: Validation of the Child Food Rejection Scale in English and cross-cultural examination in the UK and France

Abstract

Although there are numerous studies examining food rejection (neophobia and pickiness), very few studies have directly compared these particular behaviors in children from different countries. Testing children from different countries is important for future research, as there are clear differences between European countries in early feeding practices and child fruit and vegetable consumption. In the present study we aimed to (i) validate the Child Food Rejection Scale in English and (ii) compare children's food neophobia and pickiness in the UK and France. To that aim, the Child Food Rejection Scale was first translated into English and its reliability and validity were assessed. Second, food rejection scores in a UK sample (n = 117) and in a French sample (n = 256) were directly compared to examine cross-cultural differences. Results showed that the Child Food Rejection Scale can be successfully used outside France. Moreover results revealed that UK children are less neophobic and picky than French children. These cultural differences can be useful to inform targeted interventions to change food related behaviors in these different populations.

Avoidance of plant foods in infancy.

“…Finally, in order to explore whether infants' behavior toward plant foods is related to later food neophobia, we contacted participants' caregivers about 1 year after they participated in the reaching assessment and asked them to fill out an online questionnaire that measured their child's food neophobic behaviors (Child Food Rejection Scale [CFRS]; Rioux et al, 2017Rioux et al, , 2019. We predicted that infants who were more reluctant to touch processed plant foods in the first assessment would have higher levels of food neophobia at the follow-up assessment 1 year later.…”

Cross-national differences in child food neophobia: A comparison of five European countries

“…These different practices 61 from various food cultures might be positively or negatively associated with FN. To our knowledge, there is 62 only one recent study in UK children that validated an instrument that was originally developed to assess 63 food rejections in French children (Rioux et al, 2019). This instrument was valid for both cultures and could 64 describe differences in food rejections among children from the two countries.…”

“…Still, this instrument was 65 answered by parents and not by children themselves. Moreover, in a recent review of factors related to picky 66 eating and food neophobia in young children, Cole et al (2017) highlighted that although there are a number 67 of studies across different countries exploring food rejections in children, few studies have compared these 68 behaviors in children from different cultural groups (Rioux et al, 2019). 69…”

Development of a Scale to Measure Infant Eating Behaviour Worldwide

“…Apart from the labour involved in doing this, if the language originally used translates poorly, the scale cannot then be changed and the scale may then only be useable in one setting. For example, a French feeding difficulty questionnaire [ 25 ] was recently translated into English [ 26 ], where only some of the original items proved valid; thus, we opted to test the tool in translation from the outset.…”