The Food Literacy BITE (building informed, thoughtful, empowered eaters) scale: development and measurement properties in U.S. elementary schoolchildren

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Food literacy provides a multidimensional framework for understanding dietary behaviors, and accurate measurement can helpfully inform development and evaluation of food education programs that promote healthy dietary habits. Existing tools for assessing children’s food literacy, however, have primarily been developed from adult-centered conceptual models. The objective of this study was to develop a novel tool—the Food Literacy BITE scale—based on four child-centered food literacy dimensions and evaluate its measurement properties among elementary schoolchildren in the U.S. Items were developed for four dimensions: food system and nutrition knowledge, confidence in everyday food skills, valuing shared food experiences, and purposeful engagement with food. An expert panel ( n = 10) provided two rounds of review to establish item and scale-level content validity. Elementary students ( n = 43) in 4th and 5th grade (~ 9–12 years) participated in group cognitive interviews to assess comprehensibility in the target population. We tested the scale with a socioeconomically and culturally diverse sample of 690 elementary schoolchildren across 10 different schools, primarily in urban settings. Structural validity of the proposed model with four first-order factors and a second-order food literacy factor was tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistency was evaluated using composite reliability values. Expert review yielded a 20-item scale with acceptable content validity, and cognitive interview findings informed item revisions to improve comprehensibility. CFA supported the proposed model structure with acceptable values across model fit indices (CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.046, SRMR = 0.051), and all item loadings ≥ 0.45. Two items were removed for cross-loading, resulting in an 18-item validated scale. Internal consistency was acceptable for food literacy overall (0.74) and adequate for each of the individual dimensions (range: 0.62–0.71). The Food Literacy BITE scale offers a novel tool for measuring children’s food literacy, based on child-centered dimensions and validated among a diverse sample. The tool further provides new measurement indicators for under-studied dimensions of food literacy in children. This scale can be used to aid in guiding and evaluating programs and interventions to support children in developing healthy dietary behaviors and habits. Not applicable.