Parent Questionnaire for Child Eating Behaviors Proves Reliable Across Groups and Time

A short German questionnaire that asks parents to describe how their children eat has passed one of the toughest statistical tests in psychology, according to a new study published in the Journal of Eating Disorders. Their answer, drawn from a large community sample, is a qualified but encouraging yes. The question the researchers tackled is far more technical than it might first appear.

When scientists compare average scores between boys and girls, between children with and without obesity, or between measurements taken three years apart, they implicitly assume that the questionnaire items function identically in each group. If a statement such as "my child eats slowly" is interpreted differently by parents of different backgrounds, or if its meaning drifts over the years of middle childhood, then any observed difference in scores could reflect measurement bias rather than genuine differences in eating behavior. Psychometricians call this prerequisite measurement invariance, and without it, group comparisons are built on sand.

To test this, the team recruited 1,657 children through primary schools in the German state of Brandenburg and followed them across three measurement occasions spanning three years in middle childhood. The statistical workhorse of the study was multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, a technique that models how individual questionnaire items relate to latent, unobserved traits and then checks whether those relationships hold steady across groups and time points. The results showed that the CEBQ-24G is measurement invariant at the residual level across all groups examined and across all three measurement occasions.

In practical terms, this means that differences observed in questionnaire scores between groups or over time can be attributed to real differences in the underlying eating behavior constructs, not to artifacts of how the items were understood or answered. The authors report that this holds across child sex, age, weight status, family socio-economic status, and parental weight status, as well as longitudinally across middle childhood. With invariance established, the researchers could legitimately compare latent group means, a more rigorous approach than comparing raw scores because it accounts for measurement error.

They found statistically significant differences in eating behavior in all group comparisons except one: age. Differences emerged between boys and girls, between children of different weight status groups, between children whose parents differed in weight status, and between families of different socio-economic backgrounds. Intriguingly, the specific eating behavior scales in which these mean differences appeared varied depending on which groups were being compared, suggesting that different demographic contrasts tap into different facets of appetite and eating style.

What the new study adds is confidence that such comparisons, when made with the CEBQ-24G in German-speaking samples of middle childhood, rest on a measurement foundation that does not tilt in favor of any particular group. The longitudinal component deserves particular attention. If an instrument's items shift in meaning between, say, ages six and nine, apparent developmental change could be an illusion.

By demonstrating residual-level invariance across three annual or multi-year occasions, the study gives researchers license to interpret score changes over this period as genuine developmental signal rather than measurement drift. The invariance findings do not eliminate this perceptual element; they simply ensure that any systematic group differences in perception are not compounded by items functioning differently across groups. For the international research community, the implications are straightforward.

Studies that use the CEBQ-24G can now compare eating behavior profiles across sex, weight status, parental weight status, and socio-economic strata in middle childhood, and can track individual children over a three-year window, with reasonable confidence that the measuring stick itself is not bending. The authors conclude that the questionnaire shows good psychometric properties in all groups examined and is suitable for research into eating behaviors in middle childhood in diverse populations. Caveats remain, as they do in any single-sample study.

The findings come from one German federal state and a community sample of primary school children, so generalization to clinical populations, other languages, or other age ranges would require further testing. The invariance established was at the residual level, and the authors note that the eating behavior scales showing mean differences varied by comparison group, meaning researchers should remain attentive to which specific scales drive any observed effects. Still, for a field that depends heavily on parent-reported questionnaires to understand how appetite traits emerge, diverge, and predict health outcomes, a rigorously validated short instrument that works equally well across the groups scientists most want to compare is a quietly significant contribution.

Subject of Research: Measurement invariance of the German Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire in middle childhood

Article Title: Cross-group and longitudinal measurement invariance of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire-24G in middle childhood

Article References: Ruden, J. C., & Warschburger, P. (2026). Cross-group and longitudinal measurement invariance of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire-24G in middle childhood. Journal of Eating Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-026-01806-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40337-026-01806-4

Keywords: measurement invariance, Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire, eating behavior, middle childhood, parent report, psychometrics, confirmatory factor analysis, longitudinal study, childhood obesity, socio-economic status, Germany, appetite traits