FOOD STIMULI AND GENDER

52

4.3.2 Analysis of Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire
As in the previous questionnaire, Cronbach's α was calculated for each of the four
scales of the FEV I questionnaire. The emotional behavior scale was originally subdivided
into A, eating in response to clear emotions and B, eating based on diffuse emotional
impulses (Grunert, 1989). Subscale A had a value of α = 0.68. To improve the Cronbach's
α, item 30 was removed, resulting in a value of α = 0.72. The Cronbach's α of subscale B
had a value of α = 0.41, which could not be improved by removing individual items.
Therefore, the subscale eating based on diffuse emotional impulses was not used, due to a
lack of reliability for further analysis. The resulting Cronbach's α values for FEV scales are
paresented in the table below.
Table 12: Reliability of FEV Scales

Variable
Cognitive restraint of eating
Emotional eating A
External determined eating

Α
0.85
0.72
0.71

The resulting three scales of the questionnaire were examined analogous to gender
differences. In the descriptive statistics, it was evident that in each of the comparisons,
women had a higher average value. Results of descriptive statistics and significance tests
were performed via t-tests. Data was missing for one male participant with this particular
questionnaire; n for male participants was 23 instead of 24.
Table 13: FEV Scales by Gender

Variable
Restraint
Emotional
External
Note: N = 49

Gender
M
W
M
W
M
W

N
23
26
23
26
23
26

M
2.30
2.70
2.11
2.53
2.95
3.09

SD
0.66
0.65
0.63
0.47
0.42
0.48

Min
1.40
1.50
1.14
1.86
2.10
2.20

Max
4.10
4.00
3.71
3.43
4.10
4.10

tt
-2.17

p
0.03

-2.64

0.01

-1.08

0.28