Black Young Adult Superwomen in the Face of Gendered Racial Microaggressions: Contextualizing Challenges With Acceptance and Avoidance and Emotional Eating.

BACKGROUND: Black young adult women (ages 18-35) are at disproportionate risk for obesity and emotional eating. Emotional eating interventions target psychological flexibility, such as reducing experiential avoidance and increasing acceptance of food-related thoughts. Yet Black women face gendered racism, and some endorse roles that reduce psychological flexibility, such as the superwoman schema role. Culturally centered stress and coping has often been overlooked, leading to an incomplete understanding of processes that engender emotional eating and the implications for appropriate and effective interventions for Black young adult women. PURPOSE: We investigated direct and indirect pathways of associations between stress from gendered racial microaggressions to emotional eating through the endorsement of superwoman schema and two aspects of psychological flexibility. METHODS: Black young adult women (N = 504; Mage = 24.72; 75.2% African American; 98.4% cisgender) participated in an online survey wherein they reported demographics, stress from gendered racial microaggressions, superwoman schema, experiential avoidance, acceptance of food-related thoughts, and emotional eating. Path analysis was conducted to examine direct and indirect effects. RESULTS: Results provided evidence for indirect associations between more stress from gendered racial microaggressions and more emotional eating. More stress was associated with greater endorsement of the superwoman schema which was associated with more experiential avoidance and less acceptance of food-related thoughts, which were each associated with more emotional eating. CONCLUSIONS: Endorsement of superwoman schema and concomitant avoidance and less acceptance may be one way that gendered racial stress propels emotional eating. Future research could test intervention components that disrupt this path.

Emotional eating is eating in order to alleviate negative emotions, like those from stress. Black young adult women face particular forms of stress from being mistreated at the intersection of their race and gender. This research was needed to better understand processes that engender emotional eating for Black young adult women so that appropriate and effective interventions can be developed for this group. In this correlational study, Black young adult women (ages 18­35) completed an online survey wherein they answered questions about their experiences, thoughts, and behaviors. The study results indicated that stress from mistreatment due to being a Black woman was associated with endorsing a need to be strong. This need to be strong was associated with avoiding experiences that may lead to negative emotional states and being less accepting of distressing thoughts about food. More avoidance and less acceptance were each associated with more emotional eating. Therefore, if emotional eating or obesity-related interventions already target acceptance and avoidance, but do not reference or contextualize them for Black young adult women­particularly in terms of stress from mistreatment as a Black woman and the need to be strong­such interventions may be less effective.

Emotional dysregulation moderates the relation between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescent children of US service members (i.e., military-dependent youth) face unique stressors that increase risk for various forms of disinhibited eating, including emotional eating. Difficulties with adaptively responding to stress and aversive emotions may play an important role in emotional eating. This study examined emotion dysregulation as a potential moderator of the association between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents. METHOD: Participants were military-dependent youth (N = 163, 57.7% female, Mage = 14.5 ± 1.6, MBMI-z = 1.9 ± 0.4) at risk for adult binge-eating disorder and high weight enrolled in a randomized controlled prevention trial. Prior to intervention, participants completed questionnaires assessing perceived stress and emotional eating. Parents completed a questionnaire assessing their adolescent's emotion dysregulation. Moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and adjusted for theoretically relevant sociodemographic covariates. RESULTS: The interaction between adolescent perceived stress and emotion dysregulation (parent-reported about the adolescent) in relation to adolescent emotional eating was found to be significant, such that higher emotion dysregulation magnified the association between perceived stress and emotional eating (p = .010). Examination of simple slopes indicated that associations between perceived stress and emotional eating were strongest for youth with above-average emotion dysregulation, and non-significant for youth with average or below-average emotion dysregulation. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that greater emotion dysregulation may increase risk for emotional eating in response to stress among military-dependent youth at risk for binge-eating disorder or high weight. Improving emotion regulation skills may be a useful target for eating disorder prevention among youth who are at risk for emotional eating. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Prior research has shown that adolescent military dependents are at increased risk for eating disorders and high weight. The current study found that emotion dysregulation moderated the relationship between perceived stress and emotional eating among military-dependent youth. There may be clinical utility in intervening on emotion regulation for adolescent dependents at particular risk for emotional eating and subsequent eating disorders.

Prospective associations between early childhood parental feeding practices and eating disorder symptoms and disordered eating behaviors in adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Nonresponsive parental feeding practices are associated with poorer appetite self-regulation in children. It is unknown whether this relationship extends beyond childhood to be prospectively associated with the onset of eating disorder (ED) symptoms in adolescence. This exploratory study therefore investigated prospective associations between early childhood parental feeding practices and adolescent ED symptoms and disordered eating behaviors. METHODS: Data were from two population-based cohorts with harmonized measures: Generation R (Netherlands; n = 4900) and Gemini (UK; n = 2094). Parents self-reported their pressure to eat, restriction and instrumental feeding (i.e., using food as a reward) at child age 4-5 years. Adolescents self-reported their compensatory behaviors (e.g., fasting, purging), binge-eating symptoms, restrained eating, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating at 12-14 years. Associations between feeding practices and ED symptoms were examined separately in each cohort using generalized linear models. RESULTS: In Gemini, pressure to eat in early childhood was associated with adolescents engaging in compensatory behaviors. In Generation R, parental restriction was associated with adolescents engaging in compensatory behaviors, restrained eating, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating. Instrumental feeding was associated with uncontrolled eating and emotional eating in Generation R. DISCUSSION: Nonresponsive parental feeding practices were associated with a greater frequency of specific ED symptoms and disordered eating in adolescence, although effect sizes were small and findings were inconsistent between cohorts. Potentially, the cultural and developmental context in which child-parent feeding interactions occur is important for ED symptoms. Further replication studies are required to better understand parents' role in the development and maintenance of ED-related symptoms. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Prospective research examining how early childhood parental feeding practices might contribute to adolescent ED symptoms is limited. In two population-based cohorts, nonresponsive feeding practices (restriction, instrumental feeding, pressure to eat) predicted increased frequency of some ED symptoms and disordered eating behaviors in adolescence, although associations were small and further replication is required. Findings support the promotion of responsive feeding practices, which may benefit young children's developing relationship with food.

Traces of social culture in the lived experiences of emotional eating among Iranian obese women.

INTRODUCTION: Emotional eating is a situation with harmful consequences for the physical, mental and social health of humans. In this regard, the present study aimed to explain the role of social culture in the lived experiences of emotional eating in Iranian obese women. METHODS: This was a qualitative study conducted using the phenomenological approach. Purposive heterogeneous sampling method was used to select 17 women with body mass index of 30 and above who had emotional eating experience. Data were collected through semi-structured and face-to-face interviews. A guideline designed by the research team, whose content validity was confirmed by the expert panel, was used to conduct the interviews. Data were analyzed based on Diekelmann 7-step approach, and trustworthiness was evaluated by Lincoln and Guba criteria. RESULTS: The main topic of the findings was social culture and emotional eating, which was explained by three themes: "influence of social culture", "language culture of eating" and "the culture of eating together". Influence of social culture had three sub-themes: "a legal and popular entertainment", "hospitality culture: encouraging guests to overeat", and "coping with the social stigma of thinness and obesity". The language culture of eating had two sub-themes of "association of common infinitives" and "the symbol of swallowing anger ". Also, "culture of eating together" included 2 sub-topics with the titles "pleasant symbol of belonging and love" and "the symbol of family cohesion". CONCLUSION: This study found that social culture through language, norms, and customs can initiate and/or reinforce emotional eating. The results of this study can be used in the design of interventions to improve emotional eating behavior in women by emphasizing the characteristics of Iranian social culture.

Habitual food consumption, eating behavior and meal-timing among Jordanian adults with elevated Blood pressure: a cross-sectional population-based study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) has been raised worldwide. Food consumption, eating habits, and nutritional lifestyle related to meal timing, skipping meals, and meal contents have recently received more attention in studies on BP and metabolic syndrome. Purpose: This study evaluated the association between habitual food consumption, eating behavior, and meal timing with BP among Jordanian adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study included 771 Jordanian adults. A food frequency questionnaire was completed. Data about eating habits, meal timing, and emotional eating were collected. BP was measured. RESULTS: The prevalence of less than recommended intake of vegetables, milk, protein, and fruits was higher in participants with elevated BP (69.2%, 90.2%, 58.9%, and 25.5%, respectively) as compared to the normal BP group (p < 0.001). Consuming vegetables and milk less than the recommended was reported to significantly increase the likelihood of elevated BP by OR= (1.60, and 2.75 (95%CI: 1.06-2.40; 1.62-4.66). Hence, consuming more than recommended fruit reduced the risk of elevated BP by OR = 0.56 (95%CI: 0.38-0.82). A 63.2% of elevated BP participants have three meals daily, a higher percentage of intake of one (23.5%) and two (45.7%) snacks. However, they had a higher percentage of morning eaters (50.7%), had lunch between 1:00-6:00 PM (92.7%), and had dinner between 6:00 and 9:00 PM (68.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Although Jordanian adults with elevated BP appear to have healthy eating habits and meal timing and frequency, their habitual food consumption falls short of the daily recommendations for milk, fruits, vegetables, and protein.

Numerous epidemiological studies have revealed a steadily rising prevalence of elevated BP, and one critical independent and modifiable risk factor for this condition is obesity.One global non-communicable diseases (NCD) target adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2013 is to lower the prevalence of raised BP by 25% by 2025 compared with its 2010 level.Lifestyle improvement is a cornerstone of CVD prevention; diet is one of the most effective strategies for attaining BP reduction and control as low-salt diets, dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH), a low-salt Mediterranean diet, an energy-restriction diet, vegetarian diet, and alternate-day fasting.Eating habits and nutritional lifestyle related to meal timing, skipping meals, and meal contents have recently received more attention in studies on BP and metabolic syndrome.a relationship between elevated BP and metabolic syndrome, infrequent fruit eating, skipping meals, irregular meal frequency and timing, and obesity has been found among adults.It has been found that earlier meal timing could reduce cardiometabolic disease burden and aid in weight loss; on the other hand, meal frequency was inversely associated with the prevalence of abdominal obesity, elevated BP, and elevated triglycerides. Morning eating was associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome than no morning eating.

Associations Among Stress, Internalized Weight Stigma, Emotional Eating, and Body Composition in Active-Duty Service Members Enrolling in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Weight Management Program.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a critical public health concern with particular relevance to US military personnel. Stress and internalized weight stigma ("stigma") may contribute to and maintain obesogenic processes and behaviors, including emotional eating. In this secondary cross-sectional analysis, we examined (1) associations among stress and stigma with emotional eating and body fat percentage (BF%), (2) whether stress explains the association between stigma and emotional eating, and (3) whether emotional eating explains associations between stress and stigma with BF%. METHOD: Active-duty military service members (N = 178) completed BF% assessment and questionnaires assessing stress, stigma, and emotional eating. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling path analyses showed that stress and stigma were both significantly associated with emotional eating (b = 0.35, p < 0.001 and b = 0.23, p < 0.001, respectively) and with BF% (b = 0.38, p < 0.001 and b = 0.29, p < 0.001, respectively) such that individuals who reported higher stress and stigma tended to report more emotional eating and had higher BF%. Stress partially explained the association between internalized weight stigma and emotional eating, and emotional eating partially explained the relationship between stress and BF% but did not significantly mediate the association between stigma and BF%. CONCLUSION: Greater stress and internalized weight stigma were associated with more emotional eating and higher BF%; however, emotional eating only partially explained the association between stress and BF%. Results highlight the importance of interventions targeting stress management skills, but additional research is needed to identify mechanisms that explain the association between stigma and BF%.

Interactions of parental feeding characteristics and adolescent emotional eating in relation to unhealthful food and sugar-sweetened beverage intake among adolescents.

The purpose of the current study was to examine main and interaction effects of parental feeding characteristics and adolescent emotional eating in relation to adolescents' unhealthful food and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Data was used from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) study, which is an internet-administered cross-sectional study of adolescent-parent dyads. There were 1573 dyads who completed all study questionnaires. Adolescents completed measures of their emotional eating and dietary intake and parents completed items of parental feeding practices and legitimacy of parental authority. Adolescents with parents who reported higher instrumental feeding, higher limiting and legitimacy of authority, and lower role modeling and stimulus control had greater unhealthful eating and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Elevated adolescent emotional eating strengthened the positive association between parental instrumental feeding and adolescent unhealthful food and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Elevated adolescent emotional eating weakened the negative association between parental role modeling and stimulus control and adolescent sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. There was no interaction between parental role modeling and stimulus control and adolescent emotional eating for unhealthful food intake and no interaction between parental limiting and legitimacy of authority and adolescent emotional eating for unhealthful food or sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Given these findings, adolescent obesity and nutrition interventions and preventions should target both parental feeding characteristics and adolescent emotional eating.

Experiences of emotional eating in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy based weight management intervention (SWiM): A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Emotional eating is a barrier to weight management. Interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) promote the acceptance of uncomfortable feelings, which can reduce the urge to use food as a coping mechanism. We aimed to explore how participants of an ACT-based weight management intervention (WMI) experience emotional eating and relevant intervention content. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with participants of a digital ACT-based guided self-help WMI. Fifteen participants were purposefully selected to represent a range of demographic characteristics and emotional eating scores. We used reflexive thematic analysis to explore experiences of emotional eating. RESULTS: We generated five themes. Participants improved emotional eating by disconnecting emotions from behaviours though increased self-awareness (theme 1) and by implementing alternative coping strategies, including preparation, substitution, and acceptance (theme 2). Most participants maintained improvements in emotional eating over time but wished for more opportunities to re-engage with intervention content, including more immediate support in triggering situations (theme 3). Participants who struggled to engage with emotional eating related intervention content often displayed an external locus of control over emotional eating triggers (theme 4). The perceived usefulness of the intervention depended on participants' prior experiences of emotional eating, and was thought insufficient for participants with complex emotional experiences (theme 5). DISCUSSION: This ACT-based WMI helped participants with emotional eating by improving self-awareness and teaching alternative coping strategies. Intervention developers may consider adding ongoing forms of intervention that provide both real-time and long-term support. Additionally, a better understanding of how to support people with an external locus of control and people with complex experiences of emotional eating is needed. Future research may explore ways of personalising WMIs based on participants' emotional needs.

The relation between questionnaire-measured self-reported emotional eating and disordered eating behaviors: A meta-analysis of nearly three decades of research.

Extensive research exists on the association between self-reported emotional eating (EE) and disordered eating (DE) behaviors. Heterogeneity exists by type (e.g., unidimensional vs. multidimensional) and valence (e.g., negative vs. positive) of self-reported EE, and no previous meta-analyses have examined the association between self-reported EE and DE behaviors. A total of 67 studies (N = 26,289; 43 reporting relations in one model, and 24 reporting relations in more than one model) met inclusion criteria; ranges for age and publication date were 18.0-61.8 years old and 1995 to 2022. Five models quantified relations between DE behaviors and 1) broad negative EE, 2) EE in response to depression, 3) EE in response to anger and anxiety, 4) EE in response to boredom, and 5) EE in response to positive emotions. Using random-effects models, pooled Cohen's d effect sizes suggested small, positive relations between DE behaviors and self-reported broad negative EE (d = 0.40, p < 0.001), EE-depression (d = 0.41, p < 0.001), EE-anger/anxiety (d = 0.35, p < 0.001), and EE-boredom (d = 0.38, p < 0.001). A significant, but very small, positive relation was observed between DE behaviors and self-reported EE-positive (d = 0.08, p = 0.01). Subgroup analyses suggested a medium, positive relation between self-reported broad negative EE and binge eating (d = 0.53, p < 0.001) and a small, positive relation between self-reported broad negative EE and dietary restraint (d = 0.20, p < 0.001). Significant heterogeneity was identified across all models except for the EE-boredom and DE behaviors model. Higher BMI, but not age, clinical status, or type of DE behavior strengthened the positive relation between self-reported broad negative EE and DE behaviors. Findings support previous research suggesting that negative and positive EE are distinct constructs, with negatively valenced EE being more closely associated with DE behaviors, especially binge eating.

Proof-of-concept testing of a brief virtual ACT workshop for emotional eating.

BACKGROUND: Emotional eating, or eating in response to negative emotions, is a commonly reported short-term emotion regulation strategy but has been shown to be ineffective in the long term. Most emotional eating interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have been delivered in the context of weight loss trials, highlighting a need for ACT-based emotional eating interventions in weight-neutral contexts. AIMS: This proof-of-concept study aimed to test the acceptability and efficacy potential of a brief virtual ACT workshop for emotional eating in a small sample of adults identifying as emotional eaters. METHODS: Twenty-six adult emotional eaters completed an ACT workshop delivered in two 1.5-h sessions over two weeks. The workshop targeted awareness and acceptance of emotions and eating urges, and valued actions around eating. RESULTS: The acceptability of the workshop was demonstrated by high participant satisfaction. Significant improvements on all outcome measures were found and maintained up to 3 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These proof-of-concept findings suggest that a brief virtual ACT workshop may improve emotional eating and associated ACT processes. Results from this study can inform a future randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the workshop and the role of theoretical processes of change. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04457804. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, evidence obtained from multiple time series with the intervention.

The role of perceived negative partner behavior in daily snacking behavior: A dynamical systems approach.

Past work suggested that psychological stress, especially in the context of relationship stress, is associated with increased consumption of energy-dense food and when maintained for long periods of time, leads to adverse health consequences. Furthermore, this association is moderated by a variety of factors, including emotional over-eating style. That being said, few work utilized a dynamical system approach to understand the intraindividual and interindividual fluctuations within this process. The current study utilized a 14-day daily diary study, collected between January-March 2020, where participants reported their partner's negative relationship behavior and their own snacking behavior. A differential equation model was applied to the daily dairy data collected. Results showed that snacking behavior followed an undamped oscillator model while negative relationship behavior followed a damped coupled oscillator model. In other words, snacking behavior fluctuated around an equilibrium but was not coupled within dyadic partners. Negative relationship behavior fluctuated around an equilibrium and was amplified over time, coupled within dyadic partners. Furthermore, we found a two-fold association between negative relationship behavior and snacking: while the association between the displacement of negative relationship behavior and snacking was negative, change in negative relationship behavior and snacking were aligned. Thus, at any given time, one's snacking depends both on the amount of negative relationship behaviors one perceives and the dynamical state a dyad is engaging in (i.e., whether the negative relationship behavior is "exacerbating" or "resolving"). This former association was moderated by emotional over-eating style and the latter association was not. The current findings highlight the importance of examining dynamics within dyadic system and offers empirical and methodological insights for research in adult relationships.

Depression and emotional eating in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Major Depressive Disorder in youth is associated with obesity and adult cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Eating in response to emotions (emotional eating) is a potential contributing factor to this association. Although emotional eating is associated with Major Depressive Disorder in adults, findings in children and adolescents are mixed. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to determine the association between depression and emotional eating in children and adolescents. Systematic searches were conducted in seven databases. Studies were included if the study population had a mean age of ≤18 years and assessed both depression and emotional eating using validated measures. The search generated 12,241 unique studies, of which 37 met inclusion criteria. Random-effects meta-analyses of study outcomes were performed. Thirty-seven studies (26,026 participants; mean age = 12.4 years, SD = 3.1) were included. The mean effect size was significant for both cross-sectional and longitudinal data (Hedges' g = 0.48, p < 0.0001; g = 0.37, p = 0.002, respectively), revealing a positive moderately strong association between depressive symptoms and emotional eating in youth. Among longitudinal studies, the association was stronger when depressive symptoms and emotional eating were assessed using child and adolescent self-report versus parent-report. No studies examined youth with a clinical diagnosis of depression. Meta-analyses revealed that depressive symptoms and emotional eating are positively associated in children and adolescents. However, further research in clinical samples is needed. Results raise the possibility for the importance of emotional eating in the link between depression and early CVD risk, though further examination is required to determine whether emotional eating is a potential treatment target to decrease CVD risk among adolescents with increased depression symptoms.

Individual characteristics and environmental factors influencing preschoolers' emotional eating.

Emotional eating, which refers to eating in response to emotional states, is prevalent in early childhood. Executive function (EF) and sleep problems are related to preschoolers' self-regulatory abilities during the day and night and have been reported to be associated with their emotional eating. These associations can be stronger in emotionally stressful situations, such as controlling feeding practices. This study explored the role of preschoolers' EF and sleep problems as child characteristics, as well as maternal feeding practices as environmental factors influencing emotional eating during the preschool period. Participants included 363 Korean mothers with preschoolers aged 3- to 5-years old (190 boys, 173 girls). Mothers reported on their own feeding practices, and preschoolers' EF, sleep problems, and emotional eating. Results indicated that preschoolers' EF was negatively associated with emotional over- and undereating, and this association was stronger when mothers applied more pressure to eat. Maternal monitoring had a similar effect, with emotional overeating exerting a greater impact with low levels of maternal monitoring. Finally, maternal pressure to eat moderated the influence of preschoolers' sleep problems on emotional overeating, with higher pressure to eat predicting a stronger relationship between sleep problems and emotional overeating. These findings suggest that maternal feeding practices, which are relatively modifiable, should be considered an important element in intervention programs aimed at preventing emotional eating in preschool children.

Associations between sleep and appetitive traits in higher-income preschoolers: A six-month study.

BACKGROUND: Short sleep is consistently linked with childhood obesity, possibly via disrupting appetite hormones and increasing food responsiveness. Few studies have objectively examined this association in early childhood. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations of sleep quantity and quality with child appetitive traits and eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) in a higher-income cohort of 86 preschool-age children (age 4.0 ± 0.8 years; 42% female; 93% non-Hispanic white, Northern New England, US). METHODS: Children's sleep duration and quality were assessed via parent report (Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire, CSHQ) at baseline and 6-month follow-up and via accelerometry at baseline. Parents also completed the Child Eating Behaviors Questionnaire to assess the child's appetitive traits. EAH, an objective measure of overeating, was observed at baseline during an in-person visit. Associations between sleep measures and appetitive traits were examined with linear mixed-effect or linear regression models, as appropriate, adjusting for child age, sex, and household income. RESULTS: Shorter sleep duration per parent report was associated with less satiety responsiveness (standardized ß = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.26; p = 0.03). Further, satiety responsiveness was inversely related to EAH (Pearson's r = -0.35, p = 0.02). No associations were found between accelerometer-measured sleep parameters and appetitive traits, and no sleep measures were related to EAH. CONCLUSIONS: Shorter usual sleep, per the parent report, was cross-sectionally associated with reduced satiety responsiveness in this sample of higher-income preschoolers. Future studies should consider whether socioeconomic status may modify the impact of poor sleep on appetitive traits in early childhood.

Uncontrolled eating is associated with higher impulsiveness, risk taking and novelty-seeking.

Previous studies suggest that trait disinhibition as measured by the Three Factor eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) is related to selected measures of impulsivity and risk taking. However, the factor validity of the original trait disinhibition measure has been questioned, and a revised scale of uncontrolled eating consequently developed. To date few studies have revisited the relationship between impulsivity and the uncontrolled and emotional eating scales of the revised TFEQ. In the present study, 283 participants (208 women) completed the revised TFEQ alongside a battery of measures of impulsivity and risk taking in an online study. The total and all subscale scores on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale were significantly associated with scores on the uncontrolled, but not emotional or restrained, TFEQ scale. Likewise, risky behaviour indexed by the average number of pumps per trial on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task were also associated with uncontrolled, but not emotional or restrained, eating, and the same pattern of associations were also found for the novelty, but not intensity, subscales of the Arnetts Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Overall these data suggest that uncontrolled eating is related to wider personality traits of risky decision making, novelty seeking and wider cognitive impulsivity, which may in turn increase of future weight gain.

Parent's use of coercive control practices with food is associated with poorer emotion regulation and increased emotional overeating in preschoolers.

Emotional overeating is defined as eating in response to emotions. Around the preschool years, there is a shift from emotional undereating to overeating, which suggests environmental influences in the development of overeating. The use of food by parents to control their child's emotions, rather than to teach them appropriate emotion regulation strategies, may impact the child's ability to regulate their own emotions, resulting in emotional overeating. We hypothesized that such coercive control practices with food by parents would be associated with poorer ability of the child to regulate their own emotions, which in turn would lead to increased emotional overeating, but not emotional undereating. Mothers of four- and five-year-olds (N = 221) were recruited through MTurk and Prolific to complete online questionnaires measuring food parenting practices (Comprehensive Feeding Style Questionnaire and Parent Feeding Style Questionnaire), child emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Checklist), and child emotional eating (Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire). Several mediation models were tested. Parent's use of food to control emotions and behavior was associated with higher levels of emotional overeating, which was mediated by poorer child emotion regulation. However, child emotion regulation did not mediate the association between parent's use of food to control emotions and behavior and the child's emotional undereating. Taken together, these models suggest that parent's use of coercive control with food may lead to child emotional overeating, but not emotional undereating, by teaching children to regulate their emotions through eating rather than more adaptive regulation strategies. Future experimental and longitudinal studies are needed to directly test the nature and direction of these associations and whether coercive control with food teaches children to overeat in response to their emotions in lieu of using appropriate emotion regulation strategies.

Investigating motivations to eat: Refining and validating a framework of Eating Behaviour Traits in dieters and the general population.

Due to relationships between diet and health including obesity, there is a need to examine the explanatory power of factors that motivate people to (over or under) eat. In a previous investigation, a four-factor subscale-based model of eating behaviour traits (EBTs) was developed which identified individual differences in psychological factors influencing motivations to eat and some residual uncertainties. The current study used a data-driven and theory-driven approach, including individual items to refine and extend previous EBT models. The aim was to examine and validate the domain structure of a framework for EBTs. The analysis used two samples including a representative sample of the UK population (n = 2010, 51% female, 49% male, 18-88 years), and members of a weight management program (n = 2317, 96.6% female, 2.8% male, 21-84 years), who completed 5 questionnaires including 10 EBTs. The results found some support for a 6-factor model, encompassing reactive eating, negative emotional eating, positive emotional eating, restricted eating, homeostatic eating, and body-food choice congruence (data-driven model) or eating for health (theory-driven model). There were differences between the data-driven model and the theory-driven model regarding the 6th factor. Additionally, the data-driven model did not distinguish between eating for pleasure and reactive eating. The models demonstrated that the eating behaviour factors were significantly associated with BMI category. Overall, this research contributes to a more structured understanding of the dimensions of motivation underlying EBTs, emphasising the utility of this framework for identifying at-risk individuals and tailoring interventions to meet specific individual needs.

Interoceptive abilities impairment correlates with emotional eating and taste abnormalities in children with overweight and obesity.

Weight problems in children are associated with emotional eating, which has been linked to interoceptive abilities. Previous research also shows altered olfactory and gustatory perception in children with obesity and overweight. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the connection of alterations in olfactory and gustatory perception to interoceptive abilities and emotional eating among children with obesity and overweight. 23 children with overweight and obesity and age-matched controls with normal weight (12-16 years old) underwent olfactory and gustatory testing. Interoceptive abilities were assessed, focusing on interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility. Children with overweight and obesity showed significantly higher accuracy for detection of sweet taste, but descriptively lower accuracy for all other taste qualities compared to normal weight children. We found no changes in olfactory abilities in children with overweight and obesity. Emotional eating scores were elevated for children with overweight and obesity, and interoceptive accuracy scores were significantly lower. In both groups, interoceptive accuracy was inversely correlated with emotional eating. Our results support prior findings of altered gustatory abilities in children with overweight and obesity. The observed link between impaired interoceptive processes and heightened emotional eating in this group implies that interventions for overweight in children could benefit from targeting interoceptive abilities. This study provides meaningful grounds for further investigations into the roles of taste, emotional eating, and interoceptive abilities for overweight in children and adolescents.

Can eating behaviour traits be explained by underlying, latent factors? An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

Eating Behaviour Traits (EBTs) are psychological constructs developed to explain patterns of eating behaviour, including factors that motivate people to (over or under) eat. There is a need to align and clarify their unique contributions and harmonise the understanding they offer for human eating behaviour. Therefore, the current study examined whether 18 commonly cited EBTs could be explained by underlying, latent factors (domains of eating behaviour). An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify latent factors, and these factors were validated using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). 1279 participants including the general public and members of a weight management programme were included in the analysis (957 females, 317 males, 3 others, 2 prefer not to say), with a mean age of 54 years (median = 57 years, SD = 12.03) and a mean BMI of 31.93 kg/m2 (median = 30.86, SD = 6.00). The participants completed 8 questionnaires which included 18 commonly cited EBTs and the dataset was split at random with a 70/30 ratio to conduct the EFA (n = 893) and CFA (n = 383). The results supported a four-factor model which indicated that EBTs can be organised into four domains: reactive, restricted, emotional, and homeostatic eating. The four-factor model also significantly predicted self-reported BMI and weight change. Future research should test whether this factor structure is replicated in more diverse populations, and including other EBTs, to advance these domains of eating as a unifying framework for studying individual differences in human eating behaviour.

The relationship between hedonic hunger and self-stigmatisation in terms of weight and self-esteem in adult people living with obesity.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to determine the factors influencing the hedonic hunger status of overweight adults and to examine the relationship between hedonic hunger, self-stigmatisation and self-esteem in terms of weight. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 353 people living with obesity who applied to the Endocrine and Internal Medicine Clinic in Samsun, Turkey, between June and October 2022. The data were collected using the Personal Information Form, Power of Food Scale (PFS), Weight Self-Stigmatisation Questionnaire (WSSQ) and Self-Liking/Self-Competence Scale (SLSC) through face-to-face survey method. RESULTS: About 53.3% of the participants were ≥45 years old, 80.5% were married and 69.1% had previously followed weight loss diet. It was found that those who were aged <45 years, single, those who perceived themselves as overweight, those who had used weight loss diets before and those whose waist-hip ratio were normal had higher hedonic hunger scores (p < 0.05). A negative and significant correlation was found between PSF-Tr general dimension scores and SLSC general dimension, whereas a significant and positive correlation was observed between PSF-Tr general dimension scores and WSSQ general dimension (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: As hedonic hunger increased in adults with overweight, self-esteem decreased, and self-stigmatisation in terms of weight increased. Effective interventions are needed to cope with the hedonic hunger that contributes to obesity and to prevent the stigma and low self-esteem experienced by people living with obesity because of their excess weight.