Development of the Health and Weight Attitudes Scale

Abstract

Objective: To develop and validate an instrument to assess attitudes toward Health at Every Size (HAES) principles.

Methods: Survey items were generated based on 5 HAES principles. A panel of reviewers was recruited to establish content validity. A convenience sample of college students in health education was recruited for pilot survey administration. Internal reliability was assessed using Cronbach α and test-retest reliability was assessed with Pearson correlation.

Results: Three panelists reviewed the instrument and provided feedback for revision. Cronbach α for the final instrument was .75 (n = 43) at pretest and .78 (n = 53) at posttest, and Pearson correlation was 0.85 (n = 39), indicating internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

Conclusions and implications: The instrument was determined to be both a valid and reliable instrument to measure HAES attitudes among college students in health education. Nutrition educators may find this instrument useful in other settings to assess HAES attitudes or as an alternative to other instruments measuring anti-fat attitudes.

Keywords: Health at Every Size; attitudes; college students; instrument development; instrument validity; weight bias.