Work

Psychometric properties of a fathers’ outcome expectancies of lifestyle behaviors instrument for father-child reciprocal reinforcement

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We propose reciprocal reinforcement as a bidirectional process through which fathers and children mutually shape lifestyle behaviors. Treating the father as the starting actor, we introduce a father-focused instrument that assesses outcome expectancies for lifestyle behaviors across eating, physical activity, and screen use. The instrument comprises two complementary scales: Self-Oriented Outcome Expectancies of Lifestyle Behaviors (SOEL), indexing expectancies organized around fathers’ own health, and Child-Oriented Outcome Expectancies of Lifestyle Behaviors (COEL), indexing expectancies organized around influencing the child through visible modeling and signaling. Using baseline data from the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids for Hispanics efficacy trial, confirmatory factor analyses supported a higher order Lifestyle factor for both scales across the three domains (eating, physical activity, screen use), with theoretically consistent loadings and evidence of reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. Conceptually, this instrument advances the study of reciprocal reinforcement by operationalizing a potential initiating mechanism: fathers’ purpose driven lifestyle behaviors that serve self-benefit and dyadic influence, thereby setting conditions for iterative, mutually reinforcing exchanges. The SOEL and COEL scales provide a brief, theory grounded tool for testing father driven pathways of reciprocal reinforcement and for informing family-based interventions targeting sustained change in diet, physical activity, and screen.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-70916-5