Development and Testing of Program Evaluation Instruments for the iCook 4-H Curriculum

Douglas R Mathews; Zachary J Kunicki; Sarah E Colby; Lisa Franzen-Castle; Kendra K Kattelmann; Melissa D Olfert; Adrienne A White

doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2018.10.014

Development and Testing of Program Evaluation Instruments for the iCook 4-H Curriculum

J Nutr Educ Behav. 2019 Mar;51(3S):S21-S29. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2018.10.014. Epub 2018 Nov 22.

Authors

Douglas R Mathews¹, Zachary J Kunicki², Sarah E Colby³, Lisa Franzen-Castle⁴, Kendra K Kattelmann⁵, Melissa D Olfert⁶, Adrienne A White⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME.
² Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.
³ Department of Nutrition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
⁴ Nutrition and Health Sciences Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
⁵ Department of Health and Nutritional Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.
⁶ Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV.
⁷ School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME. Electronic address: awhite@maine.edu.

PMID: 30472311
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2018.10.014

Abstract

Objective: To develop and test the validity of program outcome evaluation instruments for cooking, eating, and playing together for obesity prevention during iCook 4-H.

Design: Instrument development for both youth and adults through pre-post testing of items newly constructed and compiled to address key curriculum constructs. Testing occurred throughout program intervention and dissemination to determine dimensionality, internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and validity.

Setting: A 5-state out-of-school program in cooperative extension and other community sites.

Participants: Youths aged 9-10 years; adults were main food preparers; the first phase involved 214 dyads and the second phase, 74 dyads.

Main outcome measure(s): Youth measures were cooking skills, culinary self-efficacy, physical activity, and openness to new foods. Adult measures were cooking together, physical activity, and eating together.

Analysis: Exploratory factor analysis to determine initial scale structure and confirmatory factor analysis to confirm factor structures. Longitudinal invariance tests to see whether the factor structure held over time. Test-retest reliability was determined by Pearson r and internal consistency was determined by coefficient Ω and Cronbach α. Validity testing was determined by Pearson r correlations.

Results: Youth cooking skills, openness to new foods, and adult eating together and cooking together showed strong evidence for dimensionality, reliability, and validity. Youth physical activity and adult physical activity measures showed strong evidence for dimensionality and validity but not reliability. The youth culinary self-efficacy measure showed strong evidence for reliability and validity but weaker evidence for dimensionality.

Conclusions and implications: Program outcome evaluation instruments for youths and adults were developed and tested to accompany the iCook 4-H curriculum. Program leaders, stakeholders, and administrators may monitor outcomes within and across programs and generate consistent reporting.

Keywords: cooking; dyad interventions; iCook 4-H; program evaluation; youth.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adult
Child
Cooking*
Curriculum
Diet Surveys
Feeding Behavior
Health Promotion*
Humans
Program Evaluation* / methods
Program Evaluation* / standards
Research Design
Self Efficacy