Weight Fluctuation and Diet Concern Negatively Affect Food-Related Life Satisfaction in Chilean Male and Female Adolescents

Abstract

Problematic eating behaviors and obesity are frequent problems encountered during adolescence that may potentially result in psychological, social and physical consequences that may interfere with adolescent development and well-being. The present study evaluates the relationship between satisfaction with food-related life and satisfaction with family life, and their relationship with life satisfaction in male and female adolescents. We explored the relationships between both subscales of the Revised Restraint Scale (RRS), Diet Concern (DC) and Weight Fluctuation (WF) and adolescent life satisfaction as well as satisfaction with food-related life and family life. We also explored the moderating role of socioeconomic status (SES). A questionnaire was applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 470 adolescents (mean age 13.2 years, 52.3% female) in Chile, including the RRS, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Satisfaction with Food-related Life (SWL-Food) scale and Satisfaction with Family Life (SWL-Family) scale. Using structural equation modeling, we found that adolescent life satisfaction was related to satisfaction with family life and food-related life in both genders. In male adolescents, a negative relationship was identified between WF and food-related life satisfaction. In contrast, a negative relationship was identified in female adolescents between DC and food-related life satisfaction. DC and WF were not directly related to life satisfaction or to satisfaction with family life in either gender. SES was found to moderate the relationship between food-related life satisfaction and life satisfaction and the relationship between WF and food-related life satisfaction in female adolescents. These findings suggest that reducing DC in female adolescents and reducing WF in male adolescents and female adolescents from higher SES may improve their food-related life satisfaction.

The Mediating Role of Family and Food-Related Life Satisfaction in the Relationships between Family Support, Parent Work-Life Balance and Adolescent Life Satisfaction in Dual-Earner Families

“…Finally, we did not assess family diet quality or food-related parenting practices used by parents, which may differ according to the level of the parents’ work-life balance [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. Future studies should incorporate these variables, since they may affect the nutritional status and well-being in adolescents [ 9 , 13 , 17 , 58 , 60 , 67 , 68 ]. Therefore, in addition to the adolescents’ age, gender and socioeconomic status, future studies may also control for adolescents’ body mass index.…”

“…Bottom-up theoretical approaches to life satisfaction imply that life satisfaction depends on the level of satisfaction a person feels in regard to different life domains [ 9 ]. Recent studies based on this approach have established that satisfaction within the food and family domains are positively related to overall life satisfaction in adolescents [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Whereas satisfaction with food-related life is defined as a person’s overall assessment of their food and eating habits [ 18 ], satisfaction with family life is defined as a conscious cognitive judgment of one’s family life [ 19 ].…”

“…Whereas satisfaction with food-related life is defined as a person’s overall assessment of their food and eating habits [ 18 ], satisfaction with family life is defined as a conscious cognitive judgment of one’s family life [ 19 ]. Various studies have addressed the relationships between emotional family support in university students; dietary restraint in adolescents; food-related parenting practices in mothers and in their adolescent children and satisfaction with food-related life, satisfaction with family life and overall life satisfaction [ 12 , 13 , 17 ].…”

Latent class analysis of dietary restraint in mother-adolescent dyads

“…Some studies have reported that dietary restraint is related to lower levels of life satisfaction in adolescents and emerging adults 20 while others have reported no association between dietary restraint and life satisfaction 21 . Similarly, dietary restraint has been also associated with lower levels of satisfaction in the food domain in adolescents and university students 20,22,23 . In addition, researchers have suggested that individuals with eating disorders are impaired in other important domains of their lives, such as in social relationships 22 .…”

“…Although girls and female adolescents are more prone to dietary restraint 16 and usually have higher values of restrained eating than boys 7 , the relationship between higher BMI and dietary restraint exists in adolescents of both genders 7 . Furthermore, recent studies have suggested that "the gap between male and female individuals in dietary restraint may be narrowing" 22,23 .…”