The present study describes the cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version (Rio de Janeiro) of the Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire (CFSQ) among caregivers of children aged 3 to 6 years enrolled in a family health service in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cross-cultural adaptation process included the following phases: (1) literature review; (2) translation and back-translation of the instrument; (3) assessment of semantic equivalence through cognitive interviews with caregivers; (4) discussion with experts; (5) pretesting of the revised version; and (6) assessment of psychometric characteristics, including reliability and validity of the scale. Results showed the appropriateness of the caregiver's feeding styles concept within the Brazilian culture and that the instrument was understandable to caregivers enrolled in a family health service. The CFSQ measurements showed perfect intra-observer reliability for "demandingness" and almost perfect for "responsiveness". Inter-observer reliability was almost perfect for both dimensions, "demandingness" and "responsiveness". Factor analysis of the Brazilian CFSQ version proposed an instrument with one dimension and 13 items. The satisfactory results of the cross-cultural adaptation of the CFSQ suggest its applicability in the population of interest with the possible reduction of some scale items.
Keywords: children; cross-cultural comparison; food; parenthood; questionnaires.