Profiles of lifestyle habits, emotional eating and body dissatisfaction in children and adolescents of the Global Health Program

To date, research on lifestyle habits latent subgroups in children and youth has mainly focused on associations between profiles and psychosocial factors, often omitting to consider sex differences between profiles (i.e., using female-only samples or, at most, using sex as a control variable). The aims of this paper were to a) identify lifestyle habits profiles of children and adolescents based on sleep, diet, physical activity and screen time; b) explore potential differences in profiles according to sex, age, parental education level, and number of years in the program; c) examine the associations between lifestyle habits profile membership and emotional eating/body dissatisfaction; d) investigate the moderating role of sex in these associations. Participants included 581 children and adolescents (6–17 years, M = 14.05 years, SD = 1.68; 44.1% girls) drawn from the first wave of the Global Health Program (GHP) quasi-experimental study. Online questionnaires assessed sociodemographic, lifestyle habits, emotional eating and body dissatisfaction variables. Latent Profile Analysis was used to identify underlying participant profiles based on lifestyle habits. Linear regression and moderation analyses were also performed. Three profiles emerged: 1) “ sedentary , moderately healthy ” ( n = 163), 2) “healthy” ( N = 288) and 3) “active , unhealthy” ( N = 130). No meaningful differences were found in profile composition by sex, number of years in the GHP or parental education level ( p > .05). However, a significant age difference emerged between the “ sedentary , moderately healthy ” (M = 14.28) and “ healthy ” (M = 13.85) profiles. Sex moderated the association between profile membership and body dissatisfaction, indicating that girls had higher body dissatisfaction only in the “ healthy ” and “ active , unhealthy ” profiles. In contrast, in the “ sedentary , moderately healthy” profile, boys had higher levels of body dissatisfaction, comparable to those of girls (i.e., no sex difference in this profile). This study identified three lifestyle profiles among GHP participants, showing sex-specific patterns in their associations with body dissatisfaction. These results underscore the need for tailored school and healthcare interventions that integrate sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and mental health to foster balanced and protective routines in youth.