Abstract

CANDELARIA-MARTINEZ, Maribel  and  FRANCO-PAREDES, Karina. Psychometric Properties of the Weight Loss Motivation Questionnaire in a Sample of Mexican University Students. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2022, vol.12, n.1, pp.29-38.  Epub Apr 24, 2023. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2022.1.399.

Knowing the initial reasons that motivate weight control in a person increases the likelihood of success in the treatment. However, instruments with optimal psychometric properties to measure why people want to lose weight are still scarce. The aim of this research was to evaluate the factorial structure and internal consistency of the Weight Loss Motivation Questionnaire (WLM-Q) scores in a Mexican sample of college students. An instrumental study with a cross-sectional design was performed. The sample consisted of 294 participants who answered the WLM-Q in a single session. Through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the three-factor model from the original study was confirmed: Appearance in Relation to Others, Appearance in Relation to Itself, and Health (CFI .96; TLI .96; RMSEA .07; SRMR .08). A good internal consistency indexes were found for the factors (α = 93, .91, and .92, respectively; Omega .90, .89 and .87, respectively). It was concluded that factorial structure of the WML-Q scores confirmed the original structure and its reliability was adequate in the sample studied. However, it is necessary to continue generating evidence regarding the validity of the scores, their temporal stability and to consider other samples.

Keywords : Motivation; Obesity; Reliability; Validity; University students; Mexico.

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