Abstract:

Background and aims: The current study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Turkish version of The Nine Item Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Screen Parent Report (NIAS-PR), which measures the avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) symptoms by parents. NIAS-PR includes three subscales picky eating, poor appetite/limited interest in eating, and fear of aversive consequences from eating. Also, our secondary aim was to assess the relationship between ARFID-related eating behaviours and emotional-behavioural symptoms of children and parents' psychological status. Methods: The NIAS-PR was translated into Turkish with standard procedures. Two hundred sixty-eight children (133 girls, 49.6%; mean age 8.62, age range from 2 to 18 years) and parents (175 mothers, 65.2%) were included in the study. The factor structure was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results were compared to the validated Turkish Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) to determine the convergent validity. Internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficient) analysis was used to determine the reliability of the NIAS-PR. Results: The current study provided evidence for the validity of the translated Turkish version of the NIAS-PR in the pediatric population. The three-factor structure of the NIAS—Picky eating, Appetite, and Fear—was replicated in the Turkish NIAS-PR. The NIAS-PR subscales showed the expected patterns of correlations with the CEBQ subscales. The reliability of the Turkish version of NIAS-PR proved to be satisfactory (total Cronbach's alpha=0.90) in the pediatric population (2-18 years). Conclusions: This study demonstrated a good internal consistency of the Turkish version of the NIAS-PR. We confirmed the three-factor structure of the Turkish version of NIAS-PR. NIAS-PR is a brief, reliable instrument for ARFID research in Turkish children and adolescents. The NIAS-PR is developed as a screening questionnaire, so health professionals should use it to investigate ARFID-related eating behaviours further. It is worth mentioning that deepening these eating symptoms with clinical interviews is necessary.

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