School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Clin Obes. 2020 Aug;10(4):e12366. doi: 10.1111/cob.12366. Epub 2020 May 3.
Whilst overeating is often influenced by others in an implicit way, people may also explicitly encourage others to overeat. This has been labelled being "a Feeder" but to date, this more deliberate trait remains neglected. This study aimed to conceptualize being "a Feeder" in terms of motivations and behaviour and to operationalize this construct with a new measurement tool through five stages with three discrete samples. Using the definition of a Feeder as "someone who offers others food even when they are not hungry" a preliminary qualitative study (n = 5) clarified the behaviour of a Feeder and revealed six motivations for such feeder behaviour. These six motivational dimensions and the feeder behaviours were operationalized with individual items and the psychometric properties of the scale were assessed using two independent samples (n = 116; n = 113). The final 27-item measure consisted of six motivational factors (affection; waste avoidance; status; hunger avoidance; offloading; manners) and one behaviour factor, all with good internal consistency (α ≥ .7). The two samples were then merged (n = 229) to describe motivations and behaviour and to assess the association between them. The best predictors of feeder behaviour were love, offloading, manners and status. This new Feeder questionnaire has a strong factor structure and good internal consistency and could be used for further research or clinical practice.
虽然过量进食通常是在潜意识中受到他人影响的，但人们也可能明确地鼓励他人过量进食。这种行为被称为“喂食者”，但迄今为止，这种更刻意的特征仍然被忽视。本研究旨在从动机和行为的角度来概念化“喂食者”，并通过五个阶段和三个离散样本，使用新的测量工具来操作这个概念。使用“喂食者”的定义为“即使他人不饿也给他们提供食物的人”，一项初步的定性研究（n = 5）阐明了喂食者的行为，并揭示了这种喂食行为的六种动机。这六个动机维度和喂食行为通过个体项目进行操作，使用两个独立的样本（n = 116；n = 113）评估了量表的心理测量特性。最终的 27 项测量包括六个动机因素（情感；避免浪费；地位；避免饥饿；减轻负担；礼貌）和一个行为因素，所有因素的内部一致性都很好（α≥.7）。然后将这两个样本合并（n = 229），以描述动机和行为，并评估它们之间的关联。喂食行为的最佳预测因素是爱、减轻负担、礼貌和地位。这个新的喂食者问卷具有很强的因素结构和良好的内部一致性，可以用于进一步的研究或临床实践。
