Identifying Indicators of the Construct for Motivation for Weight Loss: Designing a Questionnaire

Abstract

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising rapidly throughout both the developed and the developing world, and it is creating social, economic and health burden on society particularly in urban areas (Popkin, 2006 in Tesfalem, 2013). As a part of designing a questionnaire, the current research aims to identify the indicators of the latent construct motivation for weight loss. To achieve this, the paper raised the following two specific research questions: What are the indicators of the motivation for participation for weight loss program? And where do the indicators fit in the factors of social determination theory (SDT)?  To gain a rich understanding of the motivation for the participation in weight loss program, semi-structured focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted with purposely recruited samples of two groups: overweight people and their interventionists. Based on the themes identified from the FGD the indicators were identified. Besides, from the consultations gained from the review of related literature the indicators were placed in SDT.

Keywords: Overweight, Weight loss, Motivation, Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-28-03

Publication date:October 31^st 2021