Description

The Infant Responsive Feeding Scale is a caregiver-report questionnaire designed to assess maternal feeding behaviors for infants under 12 months of age. It was adapted from the Toddler Responsive Feeding Scale to reflect feeding practices relevant to infants, focusing on the extent to which mothers engage in “responsive feeding” — feeding behaviors that are sensitive to infant hunger and satiety cues. The measure is used to evaluate maternal feeding styles that may promote healthy or unhealthy weight gain during the first year of life. The scale is brief, feasible to administer, and was incorporated into Family Spirit studies (https://cih.jhu.edu/programs/family-spirit-nurture/) to monitor outcomes of nutrition interventions.

AI/AN Communities where the measure has been used

Southwest tribal communities; Upper Midwest.

Demographics of AI/AN participants where the scale has been used

Women ages 14+ with infants less than 12 months old.

Notes on adaptations or modifications

  1. Internally developed and adapted from the Toddler Responsive Feeding Scale (TRFS).
  2. Items were heavily modified to apply to infants rather than toddlers.
  3. Final version contains 24 items (not including 3 demographic items on infant age).

Modality and administration

Self-report; this measure is administered via paper and pencil or a mobile tablet.

Scoring

  • Items rated on a 3-point Likert scale: 0 = Never, 1 = Sometimes, 2 = Always.
  • Higher scores indicate more positive and responsive feeding practices.

Psychometric evidence

(Hurley et al., 2013) Internal consistency reliability for the 27-item, 5-factor feeding scale…with the Cronbach’s alpha for all factors >.70.

Feeding subscales:

Responsive α = .79
Forceful α = .64
Restrictive α = .76
Indulgent α = .74
Uninvolved α = .87

Citation(s)

Original citation:

  • Hurley, K. M., Pepper, M. R., Candelaria, M., Wang, Y., Caulfield, L. E., Latta, L., Hager, E. R., & Black, M. M. (2013). Systematic Development and Validation of a Theory-based Questionnaire to Assess Toddler Feeding. The Journal of Nutrition, 143(12), 2044–2049. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.113.179846

Example use citation:

  • Rosenstock, S., Ingalls, A., Foy Cuddy, R., Neault, N., Littlepage, S., Cohoe, L., Nelson, L., Shephard-Yazzie, K., Yazzie, S., Alikhani, A., Reid, R., Kenney, A., & Barlow, A. (2021). Effect of a Home-Visiting Intervention to Reduce Early Childhood Obesity Among Native American Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA pediatrics, 175(2), 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3557
  • Ingalls A, Rosenstock S, Foy Cuddy, R, et al. Family Spirit Nurture (FSN) – a randomized controlled trial to prevent early childhood obesity in American Indian populations: trial rationale and study protocol. BMC Obesity. 2019;6:18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40608-019-0233-9

Reference citation:

  • Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices: definitions and measurement methods. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2021. Licence: CC BYNC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo.

Disclaimer: The included citations are not exhaustive, but represent the examples we had access to. If you are an original author or have other work that could be included here, please contact us.