Abstract
Food preferences are among the strongest predictors of the food choices of adolescents. These are associated with appetitive traits (food approach and avoidance) to some extent. However, no research has been conducted so far analyzing the association between food preferences and appetitive traits of adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between food preferences and appetitive traits in adolescents (aged 15–20 years) within the Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study population. The PLACE-19 Study was carried out in a population-based sample of 2448 secondary school students sampled across the country (random quota sampling). Food preferences (including the preference for vegetables, fruit, meat/fish, dairy, snacks, and starches) of the adolescents were assessed using the validated Food Preference Questionnaire (FPQ) while their appetitive traits (hunger, food responsiveness, emotional overeating, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, emotional undereating, food fussiness, slowness in eating) were assessed using the validated Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ). The k-means clustering was performed to identify the homogenous clusters of respondents based on their preferences, and linear regression was performed to determine the relationship between food preferences and appetitive traits with a model adjusted for sex and age. Based on their preferences, three homogenous clusters of respondents were defined: low-preferring respondents (low preference for all food categories), respondents preferring snacking foods (low preference for all food categories, except for fruit and snacks), and high-preferring respondents (high preference for all food categories). The low-preferring respondents showed the lowest values for all appetitive traits (p = 0.0008), as well as the lowest total score (p = 0.0001), except for food fussiness, for which they showed the highest value (p = 0.0008). All preference scores were positively associated with traits such as hunger, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, and emotional under-eating, while negatively associated with food fussiness (all p < 0.05). The largest amount of variance was observed for preference for dairy (14.6%; R2 = 0.146, p = 0.008) and snacks with respect to enjoyment of food (16.2%; R2 = 0.162, p = 0.008), for vegetable with respect to food fussiness (22%; R2 = 0.220, p = 0.008), and for meat/fish with respect to enjoyment of food (19.9%; R2 = 0.199, p = 0.008) and food fussiness combined (19.1%; R2 = 0.191, p = 0.008). These results support the association of food preferences with both food approach traits and food avoidance traits.
Highlights
As indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, which allows preventing nutrition-related chronic diseases in the future, while addressing specific nutritional issues and correcting those that originated in the past [1]
The highest preferences in the studied group were defined for the categories of fruit, snacks and starches and the lowest—for the category of meat/fish
It may be indicated that the association between food preferences and appetitive traits is not influenced by the type of appetitive traits (appreferences and appetitive traits is not influenced by the type of appetitive traits, but other factors may more likely determine the associations beor avoidance), but other factors may more likely determine the associations between food tween food preferences and food fussiness compared to other appetitive traits
Summary
As indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, which allows preventing nutrition-related chronic diseases in the future, while addressing specific nutritional issues and correcting those that originated in the past [1]. In this period, individuals prioritize personal preferences over family eating habits, as they have progressively more control over their own diet [2]. Several studies conducted among youths have confirmed the role of food preferences as a powerful determinant of diet and health. Their results indicate that food preferences influence weight status [5] and nutritional risk factors of diet-related diseases [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
