Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The majority of research on eating behaviors has been limited to an almost exclusive focus on pathology and is centered on the female group. Recently, one form of adaptive eating that has gained recognition is “intuitive eating”, which is defined as eating according to internal physiological cues of hunger and satiety rather than external or emotional signals. That is, individuals who eat intuitively are not preoccupied by food and dieting. They often choose food that helps their bodies function well and is pleasing to their palate. They do not ignore hunger cues or classify food into acceptable or unacceptable categories. Therefore, intuitive eating was found to be linked with greater unconditional self-regard and body satisfaction, as well as lower levels of both depression and disordered eating. Adolescence, in particular, acts as a critical period in the development of eating attitudes and behaviors. Adolescents devote a great deal of attention to physical appearance, and are inclined to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors to reduce an unsatisfactory body image; this has a negative impact on their physical and mental health. Due to these circumstances, it is essential to identify the key factors influencing adolescents’ healthy eating behaviors. Using the perspectives of attachment theory and the acceptance model of intuitive eating, this study aimed to investigate the effect of friendship quality on intuitive eating among Chinese adolescents, and the potential mediating role of self-compassion and positive body image on this association, as well as explore a possible gender difference. This research not only provides suggestions for parents and educators to increase adolescents’ intuitive eating, but it also identifies significant factors that influence intuitive eating in order to foster relevant practical prevention strategies and interventions.Participants were 2438 students (M = 13.14 years, SD = 1.08) recruited from three middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. There were 1162 girls (47.7%) and 1276 boys (52.3%). They completed a set of self-report measures on friendship quality, self-compassion, positive body image, and intuitive eating. All the measures have acceptable reliability and validity. The results indicated that after controlling for age, gender, and body mass index, friendship quality was positively associated with intuitive eating. Self-compassion and positive body image mediated this association, which contained three significant mediating pathways: the separate mediating effects of (a) self-compassion and (b) positive body image, and the serial mediating effect of (c) self-compassion and positive body image. In addition, significant differences in mediating effects per gender were only found in the relationship between friendship quality and the dimensions of intuitive eating (“unconditional permission to eat” and “eating for physical rather than emotional reasons”).Our findings highlight the relevance of friendship quality, self-compassion, and positive body image in the understanding of adolescents’ intuitive eating. This study suggests that parents should create a warm and friendly family atmosphere which will contribute to adolescents’ peer relationships and friendships. Educators should direct students to be compassionate toward their own shortcomings and failures to improve levels of body appreciation and body satisfaction. These factors will play important roles in promoting intuitive eating. Moreover, future interventions for intuitive eating should be designed to increase adolescents’ self-compassion and positive body image through effective intervention approaches and measures.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： According to life history theory, organisms face necessary trade-offs in allocating limited energy and resources between somatic effort and reproductive effort. How an individual allocates resources to cope with survival and reproductive tasks reflects their life history strategies. In unpredictable environments, individuals tend to invest more in reproductive efforts and prioritize immediate payoffs because the future is uncertain, and the delayed benefits may not be available later. Food may be considered an immediate reward and overeating may more likely occur among people living in unpredictable environments. Our research investigated how early life environmental unpredictability affects overeating and the underlying mechanism between the association. Study 1 recruited 91 adolescent participants and utilized the Eating in the Absence of Hunger protocol (EAH). Participants were randomly assigned either to the “hunger” or “absence of hunger” groups. Both groups completed a food portion choice task. Participants were presented with photographs of 36 food types (18 high-calorie and 18 low-calorie), where participants chose their desired food portion on each picture from 0 (none) to 4 (four portions). Results indicated that the hunger state could moderate the effects of early life environmental unpredictability on overeating. Specifically, (a)in hunger state, environmental unpredictability was not associated with selected high-calorie/unhealthy food portion, while participants living in high environmental unpredictability selected more high-calorie/unhealthy food portion than those living in low environmental unpredictability, i.e., overeating; (b)in hunger state, participants living in high environmental unpredictability selected less low-calorie/healthy food portion than those living in low environmental unpredictability, while in the absence of hunger state, environmental unpredictability was not associated with selected low-calorie/healthy food portion. Hence, our results, on the one hand, supported the initial hypothesis that early life environmental unpredictability could promote overeating in the absence of hunger state. On the other hand, our findings demonstrated that individuals in the hunger state would be more impulsive, selecting less healthy food.Study 2 examined differences in overeating between participants with high and low perceived death threat states. The former group was comprised of 301 community residents from Wuhan City, the epicenter of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The latter group was comprised of 179 community residents from the 42 other cities in China. Participants completed questionnaires regarding early life environmental unpredictability, fast life history strategy (Mini-K), overeating, perceived death threat, and social support. Results indicated that early life environmental unpredictability may affect overeating through the mediating role of fast life history strategies. Moreover, perceived death threat and social support may moderate the path between fast life history strategies and overeating. Evidently, participants with both high and low death threats, fast life history strategies were positively associated with overeating; however, the effect was smaller for the latter grouping. For individuals with high social support, fast life history strategies were not associated with overeating; while for individuals with low social support, fast life history strategies were positively associated with overeating. Findings indicated that environmental unpredictability in early life was positively associated with overeating through fast life history strategies. Additionally, this effect intensifies when the current environment is life-threatening; while the effect would be buffered for individuals with high social support. Findings provided evidence for the prevention and intervention of healthy eating promotion in the context of COVID-19.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Early life stress (ELS) has been used to describe a broad spectrum of adverse and stressful events, including childhood trauma occurring during neonatal life, early and late childhood, and adolescence. Childhood is a vulnerable time point for stressful events due to an immature brain, which increases the risk of psychopathology in later life. However, to date, studies have focused almost exclusively on adolescents and adults, and little is known about the relationship between ELS and the structural and functional brain changes in children. Here, we adopted a multimodal approach combining voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and functional connectivity (FC) to examine the neural substrates of ELS in children aged 9~12 years.A total of 139 children were recruited for this study. For each participant, the ELS level was assessed and an 8-minute rs-fMRI scan was performed using a 3T Trio scanner. Participants with unqualified data were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 78 participants (39 females; mean age = 10.18). For statistical analysis, we used the gray matter volume (GMV) and FC to explore the brain structural and functional correlates of children’s ELS and then used a machine learning method to investigate whether and how structural connectivity profiles in predefined brain networks can predict ELS levels. Additionally, exploratory analyses were performed to investigate potential sex differences and age characteristics in GMV and FC associated with children’s ELS. VBM analysis showed that greater ELS was associated with a larger GMV in the left medial orbitofrontal cortex, right insular cortex, left superior temporal gyrus, and left supplementary motor area. Subsequently, we used these clusters as seed regions to analyze the correlation between FC and stress in children. We found that greater ELS was associated with lower insular-inferior parietal lobule (IPL) connectivity. The results were not influenced by sex, age, total intracranial volume, or head motion. Furthermore, the predictive analysis of machine learning reported that the sensorimotor, frontoparietal, salience, visual, and cerebellar networks could marginally predict ELS scores. Finally, exploratory analyses showed that there were no significant sex differences in the GMV or FC associated with ELS and that significant correlations of ELS with the GMV of the inferior occipital gyrus were mainly manifested in 9-year-old children. Using VBM and FC analyses, we detected structural and functional brain alterations associated with ELS in children aged 9~12 years. Specifically, the VBM analysis mainly reflected that children with high ELS may have abnormal emotional and cognitive functions, such as hypersensitivity to emotional stimuli and over-monitoring of their own behavior. In addition, FC analysis indicated that aberrant interaction of internal and external information may contribute to high ELS in childhood. This study not only provides unique insights into the neural substrates of ELS but may also help identify children who are susceptible to ELS within the general population, which may be advantageous for early prevention strategies and interventions for children.
Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2022-09-08
Abstract：
Early life stress (ELS) has been used to describe a broad spectrum of adverse and stressful events, including childhood trauma occurring during neonatal life, early and late childhood, and adolescence. Childhood is a vulnerable time point for stressful events due to an immature brain, which increases the risk of psychopathology in later life. However, to date, studies have focused almost exclusively on adolescents and adults, and little is known about the relationship between ELS and the structural and functional brain changes in children. Here, we adopted a multimodal approach combining voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and functional connectivity (FC) to examine the neural substrates of ELS in children aged 9~12 years.
A total of 139 children were recruited for this study. For each participant, the ELS level was assessed and an 8-minute rs-fMRI scan was performed using a 3T Trio scanner. Participants with unqualified data were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 78 participants (39 females; mean age = 10.18). For statistical analysis, we used the gray matter volume (GMV) and FC to explore the brain structural and functional correlates of children’s ELS and then used a machine learning method to investigate whether and how structural connectivity profiles in predefined brain networks can predict ELS levels. Additionally, exploratory analyses were performed to investigate potential sex differences and age characteristics in GMV and FC associated with children’s ELS.
VBM analysis showed that greater ELS was associated with a larger GMV in the left medial orbitofrontal cortex, right insular cortex, left superior temporal gyrus, and left supplementary motor area. Subsequently, we used these clusters as seed regions to analyze the correlation between FC and stress in children. We found that greater ELS was associated with lower insular-inferior parietal lobule (IPL) connectivity. The results were not influenced by sex, age, total intracranial volume, or head motion. Furthermore, the predictive analysis of machine learning reported that the sensorimotor, frontoparietal, salience, visual, and cerebellar networks could marginally predict ELS scores. Finally, exploratory analyses showed that there were no significant sex differences in the GMV or FC associated with ELS and that significant correlations of ELS with the GMV of the inferior occipital gyrus were mainly manifested in 9-year-old children.
Using VBM and FC analyses, we detected structural and functional brain alterations associated with ELS in children aged 9~12 years. Specifically, the VBM analysis mainly reflected that children with high ELS may have abnormal emotional and cognitive functions, such as hypersensitivity to emotional stimuli and over-monitoring of their own behavior. In addition, FC analysis indicated that aberrant interaction of internal and external information may contribute to high ELS in childhood. This study not only provides unique insights into the neural substrates of ELS but may also help identify children who are susceptible to ELS within the general population, which may be advantageous for early prevention strategies and interventions for children.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
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