Association Between Food Choices Motivators and Physical Activity in Body Image (dis)Satisfaction in Portuguese Adolescents

Abstract

Concerns about weight and body image are common among adolescents since they are particularly vulnerable to body-image dissatisfaction due to the normal physiological, social, and psychological changes they are going through. This study aims to analyse the relationship between food choice motivations and physical activity in body-image perception among adolescents. Twelve to sixteen years old adolescents were recruited from three school districts. The Portuguese version of the Food Choices Questionnaire (FCQ) was used to assess food choice motivators, and the Quantification de l'Activité Physique en Altitude Chez les Enfants was used to assess physical activity and to calculate daily energy expenditure (DEE). Body image perception was measured using Collins' sequence of seven silhouettes. Body image (dis)satisfaction was estimated by the present body shape minus the desired body shape. ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed to compare groups, and the post-hoc Bonferroni test was used to compare target groups. A multinominal logistic regression was performed to analyse the association between gender, age, hours of sport's competition, FCQ, and body dissatisfaction. All analyses were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0. The sample comprised 286 adolescents (51.4% females). Means of FCQ categories varied between 0.33 and 0.97 (range: −2 to 2). Regarding the categories of FCQ, statistically significant differences were found in the category of body satisfaction and weight control among the three groups (p = 0.004). A preventive effect was found of choosing food regarding body satisfaction and weight control, on body-image dissatisfaction.

Analysis of Adolescent Physical Activity Levels and Their Relationship with Body Image and Nutritional Habits

“…It should be noted that interventions have been carried out to improve this dissatisfaction through physical activity and nutrition in preadolescents [ 66 ] without finding optimal results. There have, however, been attempts to analyze the relationship between the motivations for choosing food and physical activity in the perception of body image among adolescents, finding a preventive effect of the choice of food with respect to corporal satisfaction [ 67 ].…”

Understanding Studies on Consumers’ Food Choices Using Food Choice Questionnaire: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis (ScoRBA)

“…Significant gaps and challenges within the green cluster dealt with topics like nutrition, psychology, and health impact themes. The challenges encompassed data incompleteness, missing data hampering key calculations, and the inherent limitations tied to cross-sectional study designs (Dias et al, 2021). Additionally, concerns about the use of self-reported data, particularly regarding weight and height, introduced biases that could undermine the accuracy of prevalence estimates (Locher et al, 2009;Mardon et al, 2015).…”

“…There were psychosocial factors in food choices, including body image concerns among adolescents (Dias et al, 2021) and age-related shifts toward health and mood motives in older individuals (Locher et al, 2009). Advocating nutrition programs with practical strategies to facilitate behavioral changes and tackle acknowledged obstacles to healthy eating (MacKenzie-Shalders, Matthews, Dulla, & Orr, 2020).…”

“…Issues with data completeness, missing data for key calculations, and limitations associated with cross-sectional study designs (Dias et al, 2021). Concerns about self-reported data, especially weight and height, introduced biases that could impact the accuracy of prevalence estimates (Locher et al, 2009).…”

“…Governments and healthcare professionals had interventions promoting physical activity while reducing sedentary behaviors among middle school students (Dias et al, 2021)and also improving the knowledge about healthy foods in the population (Mardon et al, 2015).…”