Background: Parenting practices contribute to children’s eating and physical activity behaviors, and thereby their risk of obesity and associated medical conditions. Fathers may engage in different parenting practices than mothers. The objective of this study was therefore to establish psychometrically sound tools in English and Spanish for measuring Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PAPP) and Food Parenting Practices (FPP) for Hispanic and non-Hispanic fathers of diverse races for use in future studies, such as evaluations of family-based obesity interventions targeted at fathers.
Methods: We conducted a preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of a reduced version of the PAPP and FPP item banks which were administered in English or Spanish to 639 fathers of 5–11 year old children. We used confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to examine factor structures of the reduced item banks by survey language and ethnicity (Hispanic, non-Hispanic). The internal consistency of the scales were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.
Results: We identified three factors for PAPP (Autonomy Support, Co-Participation/Modeling, Coercive Control) with two sub-factors each; four factors for FPP (Child Involvement, Covert Control, Modeling, Threats & Bribes) without sub-factors. The solutions performed well in the samples of English and Spanish-speaking fathers. The fit of the FPP factors was adequate among fathers who completed the survey in English, and to a lesser extent among Spanish-speaking fathers, albeit acceptable. A bi-factor model, where each item loads on a primary dimension and supports the use of global factors, was identified for all PAPP scales in both languages with adequate internal consistency and fit. The CFA structure observed by survey language versions was less supported across ethnicities, but did not diverge enough to warrant major modifications. The internal consistency of the FPP Covert Control factor among Hispanics and the Spanish survey sample was low.
Conclusions: This work builds on previously published psychometrics of a large item bank for improving fathers’ measurement of PAPP and FPP. Findings support the use of a reduced version of the parenting practices for fathers when administering the survey in English and Spanish. Further research is needed to investigate the measurement of fathers’ parenting practices across other Spanish speaking groups.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-025-24584-1.
Keywords: Child feeding; Child physical activity; Confirmatory factor analysis; Parenting practices.