Introduction:

empirical research shows that perceived self-efficacy is an important variable in maintaining and reducing weight. There are available instruments to measure perceived self-efficacy and its relation to obesity, but in Mexico it is still insufficient.

Objective:

the purpose of the current research is to analyze the psychometric properties of the Mexican version of the self-efficacy inventory for weight control (SEI-WC) in university students in the health area.

Methods:

participants in this study were 872 university students from the School of Health Sciences, aged between 17 and 47 (20.07 ± 2.61) years. Bartlett's sphericity test was performed to evaluate the relevance of the factor analysis. The principal component analysis with Varimax rotation was used to evaluate the adjustment of the scores on each factor.

Results:

internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) shows adequate psychometric properties for the three final factors: 0.856 for the factor "feeding style and externality", 0.85 for "programmed physical activity" and 0.671 for "daily physical activity".

Conclusion:

the findings of this study show that the SEI-WC is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the level of self-efficacy for weight control in Mexican university students in the health area.

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