The Intuitive Eating Scale: Psychometric properties and relationships with eating self efficacy and eating behaviour

In the domain of eating behaviour, research has traditionally address eating disorder symptomatology rather than adaptive eating practices (e.g., Tylka, 2006; Lombardo & Lucidi, 2003). Recently, Tylka (2006) developed a questionnaire for evaluating intuitive eating, i.e. an adaptive eating behaviour based on internal cues, of hunger and satiety, in the absence of external eating rules and worries about eating. The validation studies indicated that it includes 3 factors: unconditional permission to eat (UPE), eating for physical rather than emotional reasons (EPR), and reliance on internal cues (RIC). This questionnaire was translated into Italian, backtranslated into English to ensure equivalence in measurement, and the Italian version was then submitted to 234 Italian women. Results of the exploratory factor analysis supported the same 3 factors of the original version. Correlations of intuitive eating scores with eating disorder symptomatology were high and negative. Intuitive eating were associated with higher eating self-efficacy.