Emotion-driven impulsiveness and snack food consumption of European adolescents: Results from the I.Family study

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the association between emotion-driven impulsiveness and snack food consumption in 1039 European adolescents aged 12-18 years. During the cross-sectional examination in 2013/2014, complete information was collected on: emotion-driven impulsiveness (using the negative urgency subscale from the Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, Sensation seeking, and Positive urgency (UPPS-P) Impulsive Behaviour Scale) and snacking behaviour operationalised as 1) consumption frequency of daily snacks, 2) consumption frequency of energy-dense snacks (both measured using Food Frequency Questionnaire) and 3) usual energy intake of food consumed per snacking occasion in calories. The latter was measured using online self-administered 24-h dietary recalls and was estimated based on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Method. Anthropometric variables were measured and BMI z-score (zBMI) calculated. Age, sex, highest education level of the family and country of residence were assessed using a questionnaire. Mixed-effect regression analyses were separately conducted for each snacking behaviour outcome with emotion-driven impulsiveness as the exposure. After controlling for zBMI, age, sex, country and socioeconomic status, emotion-driven impulsiveness was positively associated with daily consumption frequency of snacks (β = 0.07, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) [0.02, 0.12]) and consumption frequency of energy-dense snacks (β = 0.25, 95% CI [0.19, 0.31]), but not with usual energy intake of food per snacking (β = 2.52, 95% CI [-0.55, 5.59]). Adolescents with a stronger emotion-driven impulsiveness tendency reported a higher snacking frequency and specifically more energy-dense snacks, whereas the energy intake of snack food seemed less important. These findings have implications for obesity prevention and treatment as they indicate the importance of targeting emotion-driven impulsiveness as a strategy to avoid excessive snacking.

Impulsivity Derived From the Dark Side: Neurocircuits That Contribute to Negative Urgency

“…Furthermore, negative urgency was shown to predict binge eating symptoms prospectively from elementary school to middle school and in college students (Pearson et al, 2015) and adults (Farstad et al, 2015). Negative urgency was also associated with more frequent snacking in adolescents (Smith and Cyders, 2016; Coumans et al, 2018). A path analysis study of 315 patients with eating disorders on the binge spectrum found that low self-directedness and emotional regulation were broadly associated with eating psychopathology, whereas negative urgency was uniquely associated with food addiction (Wolz et al, 2017).…”

Could emotional eating act as a mediator between sleep quality and food intake in female students?

“…This finding is supported by Rangan et al [47], but not by two other studies in which girls with poor sleep quality tended to consume carbohydrate-rich foods [47, 48]. It seems that negative emotion may be responsible for the selection of sweet and high fat foods with more palatability [49, 50]. The present study could not confirm emotional eating as a mediator between poor sleep quality and more energy intake from fat, which is in contrast with Dweck et al’s study that reported short sleep duration resulted in more food intake in subjects who were emotional eaters [23].…”

Emotional Eating, Health Behaviours, and Obesity in Children: A 12-Country Cross-Sectional Study

“…Many foods included in the unhealthy diet pattern (i.e., fast foods, ice cream, fried food, French fries, potato chips, cakes, and sugar-sweetened sodas) are ready to eat and are easily obtainable, even for 9–11-year-olds. However, one cause of EE may be poor emotion regulation in general [4], and it has been shown that adolescents (mean age 13.6 years) who are having difficulties with adequately regulating their negative emotions consume snacks, especially energy-dense snacks, more frequently [48]. Yet, because our study, as well as most of the earlier research regarding the association between emotional eating and diet, was cross-sectional, we cannot rule out the possibility of a reverse relationship.…”