Trait self-control and disinhibited eating in COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived mortality threat and negative affect

Li, Qingqing; Xiang, Guo; Song, Shiqing; Li, Xiaobao; Liu, Yong; Wang, Yanli; Luo, Yong; Xiao, Mingzhao; Chen, Hong

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2021.105660

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Besides these associations, self-regulation was surprisingly not robustly linked to changes in health-related behaviors. This pattern is contrary to other work (Kokkoris and Stavrova, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Sousa et al, 2021), potentially due to differences in samples (i.e., college students versus adult Mturk workers) and location (i.e., US versus China, Portugal, Netherlands). The lack of consistent evidence could be because stay-athome orders were in place for approximately 3 weeks at the time of data collection.…”

Section: Role Of Self-regulationcontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic provide initial support for this contention, showing that better self-regulation is associated with healthier practices and greater use of strategies for continued goal pursuit. For example, a study of college students in China showed that higher self-control was associated with lower disinhibited eating behavior ( Li et al, 2021 ). Likewise, a study of Portuguese adults found that higher self-regulation was associated with healthier behaviors ( Sousa et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adjusting to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: The impact of disruptions on habits and changes in health behaviors

2023

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The COVID-19 pandemic provides a naturalistic test of whether pandemic-related disruptions weaken habits and undermine behavior stability. We hypothesized that better capacity to effortfully guide behavior (self-regulation) would buffer this effect and be associated with behavior stability and development of new habits to accomplish daily behaviors. A cross-sectional study of 416 MTurk workers recruited in April 2020 ( Mage = 34.60, SD = 11.51) indicated that pandemic-related disruptions generally exceeded people’s capacity to effortfully modify their behavior. Self-regulation related to the development of new habits and to lower likelihood that work productivity decreased. Self-regulation also protected against the effect of disruption on the likelihood that substance use increased. Besides these associations, self-regulation was largely unrelated to health-related behaviors and, in some instances, associated with poorer outcomes. These findings underscore the need to appreciate the impact of contextual disruptions in interpreting and promoting change in health-related behaviors.

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Section: Role Of Self-regulationcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjusting to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: The impact of disruptions on habits and changes in health behaviors

2023

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“…The goal conflict model of eating suggests that individuals with RE fail to suppress their food intake due to higher hedonic-eating reward motivation and reduced inhibition control [56]. This model is also supported by the negative relation between self-control and disinhibited eating [28]. Consequently, we speculated that individuals with higher RE failed to deal with negative affect adequately due to limited cognitive resources, interrupting dietary restriction maintenance and exhibiting more overeating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Conversely, some studies found that mortality threat would lead to people engaging in more unhealthy food intake to mitigate the psychological threats, which acted as a compensatory response [25]. Also, the research on life-history strategy explained that people under mortality-threat stress were likely to adopt a quick life-history strategy where people would show impulsive behaviors and pursue immediate rewards [26,27], such as disinhibited eating [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Restrained Eating and Overeating during COVID-19: A Cross-Lagged Model

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Widespread overeating has been found during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The present study investigated whether pre-pandemic restrained eating (RE) predicted overeating during the pandemic, and further explored the behavioral (mortality threat, negative affect) mechanisms underlying this association. An eight-month longitudinal survey was conducted with a large sample of 616 undergraduates from Southwest university. From September 2019 to April 2020, three measurements were conducted. RE was tested before the pandemic (T1), and data of mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating were collected at the middle (T2) and end of (T3) the COVID-19 crisis in China. The correlation results showed that baseline RE was positively associated with mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating at T2 and T3. Moreover, negative affect and mortality threat were positively correlated with overeating. Results from longitudinal mediation showed that baseline RE would positively predict T3 overeating through T2 negative affect, but not T2 mortality threat. This study supports and extends the counterregulatory eating hypothesis that RE positively predicts future overeating, especially through negative emotions. These findings further reveal the core psychological mechanism underlying this positive RE-overeating relation in the context of COVID-19, indicating that the individuals with higher RE could not cope with negative affect adequately, contributing to more overeating.

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“…63 Indeed, those with lower trait self-control, reported greater disinhibited eating possibly due to levels of negative affect. 59 This variability in experience (perhaps relating to work, childcare, and health status) is reflected in this data, given the mixed pattern of results.…”

Section: Measurementioning

confidence: 82%

Associations between body mass index and episodic memory for recent eating, mindful eating, and cognitive distraction: A cross‐sectional study

Hinton,

Beesley,

Leary

et al. 2024

Obesity Science & Practice

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ObjectivesEating while distracted has been associated with a higher body mass index (BMI), whereas mindful eating and episodic memory for recent eating have shown the opposite pattern. This pre‐registered, global study (https://osf.io/rdjzk) compared the relative association between these variables (and four “positive controls”: restraint, disinhibition, emotional eating, plate clearing) and self‐reported BMI. The timing of data collection (April–May 2020) during the SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic enabled an investigation of the impact of stay‐at‐home restrictions imposed on the UK population on the measures of eating behavior.MethodsAn online survey was completed, including: (i) demographic data (e.g., self‐reported BMI), (ii) Likert ratings assessing episodic memory for recent eating, mindful eating, cognitive distraction, restrained eating, emotional eating, disinhibition and plate clearing over the last 12 months and the last 7 days (during the first UK COVID‐19 lockdown), and (iii) the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ).ResultsA large adult sample participated (N = 846; mean (SD) age = 33.0 (14.3) years; mean (SD) BMI = 24.6 (5.6) kg/m2). Mindful eating (MEQ‐total score) was associated with a lower self‐reported BMI (β = −0.12; 95% CI = −0.20, −0.04; p = 0.004), whereas disinhibited eating was associated with a higher self‐reported BMI (β = 0.30; 95% CI = 0.21, 0.38; p < 0.001). In UK participants (n = 520), consistent changes in eating behavior during lockdown were not found. For those that did experience change, decreases were reported in; emotional eating, disinhibited eating, focusing on taste during a meal (a measure of mindful eating), and using a smart phone while eating.ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence in a large global sample for associations between BMI and (i) mindful eating, and (ii) disinhibited eating. Future research should evaluate whether mindful eating demonstrates a prospective association with body weight and should consider mechanisms of action.

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Trait self-control and disinhibited eating in COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived mortality threat and negative affect

Cited by 11 publications

References 64 publications

Adjusting to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: The impact of disruptions on habits and changes in health behaviors

Adjusting to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: The impact of disruptions on habits and changes in health behaviors

The Association of Restrained Eating and Overeating during COVID-19: A Cross-Lagged Model

Associations between body mass index and episodic memory for recent eating, mindful eating, and cognitive distraction: A cross‐sectional study

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