Assessing Drivers of Eating Behavior in a Community Sample of Adolescents: Implications for Preventive Interventions

Objective: Understanding specific drivers of dietary behavior in adolescents can inform preventive models for disordered eating and psychosocial and physical health concerns. The present study examined how eating motives (hedonic appetite, palatable eating motives, controlled dietary motivation), relate to impulsivity and emotional eating to predict binge eating and calorie intake in adolescents. Method: 43 adolescents (M_age = 15.1 years, 72.1% female) self-reported all variables of interest via survey during a study lab visit. Calorie intake was assessed via dietary recall. Models were run in SPSS and post hoc probing was conducted for significant interactions. Results: Significant associations emerged between hedonic appetite and binge eating, emotional eating and binge eating, palatable eating motives and binge eating, and controlled dietary motivation and binge eating. There was a significant interaction of controlled dietary motivation and emotional eating predicting binge eating (β = .23, p < .05) with higher levels of controlled motivation positively associated with binge eating when emotional eating was high. There was a marginally significant interaction (β = .22, p = .05) for hedonic appetite and emotional eating predicting binge eating, with higher levels of emotional eating predicting binge eating when hedonic appetite was high. Conclusions: The present study identified potential risk factors for binge eating in adolescents, highlighting hedonic appetite and emotional eating as important factors to assess to inform preventive intervention. Future studies with larger and more diverse samples, conducted longitudinally in comparison to clinical samples will progress the application of this research.

Implications for Impact Statement

This study suggests that specific eating motives and behaviors can be risk factors for binge eating in healthy adolescents. Screening for hedonic appetite, emotional eating, and eating motives can inform preventive strategies for disordered eating. Interventions that promote healthful relationships with food can be preventive to the development of disordered eating and related concerns for adolescents.