The measurement of dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger: an examination of the factor structure of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ).

Objective: To conduct separate factor analyses of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R, TFEQ-D and TFEQ-H) scales and provide initial evidence of the construct validity of the obtained solutions.

Design: A cross-sectional survey with a 12 month retest of a subsample of subjects.

Subjects: A total of 553 undergraduate university women with a mean age of 25.0 y. The retest sample comprised 64 subjects with a mean age at retest of 25.7 y.

Measurements: In addition to the TFEQ, age, body mass index (BMI), satisfaction with current weight, nutrition knowledge and current exercise level were recorded.

Results: Three restraint (strategic dieting behaviour, attitude to self-regulation, avoidance of fattening foods), three disinhibition (habitual susceptibility, emotional susceptibility, situational susceptibility) and two hunger constructs (internal locus for hunger, external locus for hunger) were identified. Initial evidence of the validity of these constructs was provided.

Conclusion: The explanation of disordered eating behaviour is likely to be refined more by specific constructs, such as those presented, rather than by the more general constructs measured by the original TFEQ-R, TFEQ-D and TFEQ-H scales. Further examination of the factor structures presented is therefore encouraged.