Associations Between Appetitive Traits and Body Image in Adolescents: A Latent Profile Analysis

Objectives: Appetitive traits are predispositions toward foods that interact with environmental factors to influence eating behaviors, dietary patterns, and weight trajectories. Few studies have used latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine food approach (e.g., hunger, food responsiveness, emotional overeating, and enjoyment of food) and food avoidance (e.g., satiety responsiveness, emotional undereating, food fussiness, and slowness in eating) appetitive traits in adolescents. Further, to our knowledge, no research has looked at whether and how appetitive traits relate to body image. The main purpose was therefore to investigate these associations in a sample of adolescents using LPA. The purpose of this research was to examine whether and how adolescents' appetitive traits relate to various dimensions of body image such as body esteem (i.e., positive appreciation and evaluation of one's body), body appreciation (i.e., acceptance of, favorable opinions toward, and respect of one's body), and body dissatisfaction (i.e., perceived discrepancy between one's current and ideal body). Methods: Participants were 280 French-Canadian adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years. They completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing appetitive traits, body esteem, body appreciation, and body dissatisfaction. Results: LPA were conducted to identify homogenous subgroups of participants based on their appetitive traits scores. LPA revealed three cluster profile groups: food seekers (higher food approach traits score), moderate eaters (close to mean scores for food approach and avoidance traits, except for lower emotional overeating and higher enjoyment of food), and food avoiders (higher food avoidance traits score). Overall, food seekers and food avoiders reported more negative body image (i.e., higher body dissatisfaction as well as lower body esteem and body appreciation) than did moderate eaters. In addition, food seekers reported higher body dissatisfaction than did food avoiders. Conclusions: This study has important implications for the fields of nutrition and eating psychology given that appetitive traits and body image both relate to adolescents' eating behaviors and food intake. Funding Sources: Canada Research Chair in the Psychological and Social Determinants of Eating Behaviors Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.