Development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of intuitive eating.

TLDR

Intuitive eating is defined as eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than situational or emotional triggers and is linked to psychological well‑being. This study develops and preliminarily evaluates the Intuitive Eating Scale (IBS) using data from four studies involving 1,260 college women. Exploratory factor analysis identified a three‑factor structure—unconditional permission to eat, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and reliance on internal hunger/satiety cues—and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this model after removing four low‑loading items. The IBS demonstrated good internal consistency and 3‑week stability, and its scores were negatively associated with eating disorder symptoms, body dissatisfaction, poor interoceptive awareness, thin‑ideal internalization, and body mass, positively associated with well‑being, and unrelated to impression management.

Abstract

Intuitive eating is characterized by eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than situational and emotional cues and is associated with psychological well-being. This study reports on the development and initial psychometric evaluation of the Intuitive Eating Scale (IBS) with data collected in 4 studies from 1,260 college women. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered 3 factors: unconditional permission to eat, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and reliance on internal hunger/ satiety cues; confirmatory factor analysis suggested that this 3-factor model adequately fit the data after 4 items with factor loadings below .45 were deleted. IES scores were internally consistent and stable over a 3-week period. Supporting its construct validity, IES scores were (a) negatively related to eating disorder symptomatology, body dissatisfaction, poor interoceptive awareness, pressure for thinness, internalization of the thin ideal, and body mass; (b) positively related to several indexes of well-being; and (c) unrelated to impression management.