Teachers' report of sense of time in kindergarten predicts children's time-processing skills in first grade.

The main aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate if a questionnaire measuring the sense of time, filled in by teachers and parents in the last year of kindergarten, was able to predict children's time-processing skills at the end of 1st grade. The sample included 131 children (initial mean age = 4.77 ± 0.29 years) tested three times in a 2-year period with tasks of time reproduction, time discrimination, and comparison of durations. One of their parents and teachers filled in a questionnaire about children's sense of time both in kindergarten and 1st grade. The teacher version of the questionnaire administered in kindergarten was able to predict most of the time-processing tasks at the end of 1st grade. The parent version of the questionnaire was not able to predict children's performance in these tasks. Different developmental trajectories of time reproduction and time discrimination were observed. This study supports the role of preschool teachers as skilled evaluators of children's time-processing skills.

Validation of the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire in an Italian Community Sample.

(1) Background: Appetitive traits in adults can be measured through the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ), a questionnaire adapted from the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). The AEBQ has been validated in several countries. The aim of the present study was to explore and validate the factor structure of the Italian version of the AEBQ. Furthermore, convergent validity and correlations between factors and BMI were explored to assess its criterion validity. (2) Methods: Participants (N = 624, mean age of 32.08 ± 14.94 years) completed the AEBQ, the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40), and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). They also self-reported demographic and anthropometric data. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test three different alternative models that emerged in previous validations. (3) Results: The CFA revealed a good model fit (RMSEA = 0.0634, TLI = 0.894, CFI = 0.907) for the 7-factor structure, without the Hunger items, showing a valid and reliable (Cronbach's α > 0.7) structure. Convergent and divergent validity of the AEBQ yielded favorable results, and relationships between the AEBQ and BMI factors revealed that the Food Approach traits were positively associated with BMI. (4) Conclusions: Finally, this study provides initial support for the use of the AEBQ as a valid and reliable tool to measure a wide range of appetitive traits in the adult Italian population.