Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults
Abstract Background Many people aim to eat healthily. Yet, affluent food environments encourage consumption of energy dense and nutrient-poor foods, making it difficult to accomplish individual goals such as maintaining a healthy diet and weight. Moreover, goal-congruent eating might be influenced b...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2021-01-01
|
| Series: | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01066-8 |
| _version_ | 1819279075335733248 |
|---|---|
| author | Björn Pannicke Tim Kaiser Julia Reichenberger Jens Blechert |
| author_facet | Björn Pannicke Tim Kaiser Julia Reichenberger Jens Blechert |
| author_sort | Björn Pannicke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Many people aim to eat healthily. Yet, affluent food environments encourage consumption of energy dense and nutrient-poor foods, making it difficult to accomplish individual goals such as maintaining a healthy diet and weight. Moreover, goal-congruent eating might be influenced by affects, stress and intense food cravings and might also impinge on these in turn. Directionality and interrelations of these variables are currently unclear, which impedes targeted intervention. Psychological network models offer an exploratory approach that might be helpful to identify unique associations between numerous variables as well as their directionality when based on longitudinal time-series data. Methods Across 14 days, 84 diet-interested participants (age range: 18–38 years, 85.7% female, mostly recruited via universities) reported their momentary states as well as retrospective eating episodes four times a day. We used multilevel vector autoregressive network models based on ecological momentary assessment data of momentary affects, perceived stress and stress coping, hunger, food craving as well as goal-congruent eating behaviour. Results Neither of the momentary measures of stress (experience of stress or stress coping), momentary affects or craving uniquely predicted goal-congruent eating. Yet, temporal effects indicated that higher anticipated stress coping predicted subsequent goal-congruent eating. Thus, the more confident participants were in their coping with upcoming challenges, the more they ate in line with their goals. Conclusion Most eating behaviour interventions focus on hunger and craving alongside negative and positive affect, thereby overlooking additional important variables like stress coping. Furthermore, self-regulation of eating behaviours seems to be represented by how much someone perceives a particular eating episode as matching their individual eating goal. To conclude, stress coping might be a potential novel intervention target for eating related Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions in the context of intensive longitudinal assessment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T00:22:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ad1e671656c7475dba04ba5cd39769ea |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1479-5868 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T00:22:08Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity |
| spelling | doaj.art-ad1e671656c7475dba04ba5cd39769ea2022-12-21T17:24:33ZengBMCInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity1479-58682021-01-0118111410.1186/s12966-020-01066-8Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adultsBjörn Pannicke0Tim Kaiser1Julia Reichenberger2Jens Blechert3Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron-University of SalzburgDepartment of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of GreifswaldDepartment of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron-University of SalzburgDepartment of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron-University of SalzburgAbstract Background Many people aim to eat healthily. Yet, affluent food environments encourage consumption of energy dense and nutrient-poor foods, making it difficult to accomplish individual goals such as maintaining a healthy diet and weight. Moreover, goal-congruent eating might be influenced by affects, stress and intense food cravings and might also impinge on these in turn. Directionality and interrelations of these variables are currently unclear, which impedes targeted intervention. Psychological network models offer an exploratory approach that might be helpful to identify unique associations between numerous variables as well as their directionality when based on longitudinal time-series data. Methods Across 14 days, 84 diet-interested participants (age range: 18–38 years, 85.7% female, mostly recruited via universities) reported their momentary states as well as retrospective eating episodes four times a day. We used multilevel vector autoregressive network models based on ecological momentary assessment data of momentary affects, perceived stress and stress coping, hunger, food craving as well as goal-congruent eating behaviour. Results Neither of the momentary measures of stress (experience of stress or stress coping), momentary affects or craving uniquely predicted goal-congruent eating. Yet, temporal effects indicated that higher anticipated stress coping predicted subsequent goal-congruent eating. Thus, the more confident participants were in their coping with upcoming challenges, the more they ate in line with their goals. Conclusion Most eating behaviour interventions focus on hunger and craving alongside negative and positive affect, thereby overlooking additional important variables like stress coping. Furthermore, self-regulation of eating behaviours seems to be represented by how much someone perceives a particular eating episode as matching their individual eating goal. To conclude, stress coping might be a potential novel intervention target for eating related Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions in the context of intensive longitudinal assessment.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01066-8Network analysismlVARStress copingAffectHealthy eatingGoal-congruent |
| spellingShingle | Björn Pannicke Tim Kaiser Julia Reichenberger Jens Blechert Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Network analysis mlVAR Stress coping Affect Healthy eating Goal-congruent |
| title | Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults |
| title_full | Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults |
| title_fullStr | Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults |
| title_short | Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults |
| title_sort | networks of stress affect and eating behaviour anticipated stress coping predicts goal congruent eating in young adults |
| topic | Network analysis mlVAR Stress coping Affect Healthy eating Goal-congruent |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01066-8 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bjornpannicke networksofstressaffectandeatingbehaviouranticipatedstresscopingpredictsgoalcongruenteatinginyoungadults AT timkaiser networksofstressaffectandeatingbehaviouranticipatedstresscopingpredictsgoalcongruenteatinginyoungadults AT juliareichenberger networksofstressaffectandeatingbehaviouranticipatedstresscopingpredictsgoalcongruenteatinginyoungadults AT jensblechert networksofstressaffectandeatingbehaviouranticipatedstresscopingpredictsgoalcongruenteatinginyoungadults |