The eating motivation survey in three countries: results from the USA, India, and Germany

Abstract

Understanding why we eat what we eat is crucial for an understanding of ‘normal’ eating behavior. Research has shown that there is a large variety of different motives underlying why people eat what they eat, which can be assessed with The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS, Renner, Sproesser, Strohbach, & Schupp, 2012). However, until now, there has been no systematic investigation of whether the 15 basic motives included in TEMS are generalizable to countries with greatly differing eating environments. Therefore, the present study investigated the consistency of the 15-factor structure of TEMS within USA, Indian, and German samples (total N = 749). The 15-factor structure of TEMS was tested in confirmatory factor analyses. Despite the complexity of the model, the results showed good model fit within the three countries and for the total sample. Also, internal consistencies of motive scales as well as item statistics were generally good. Thus, the 15-factor structure of TEMS was confirmed across countries despite marked differences in eating environments. This is a first step towards determining generalizability of the 15 basic eating motives of TEMS across a broad range of eating environments.