Feel Good, Eat Better: The Role of Self-Compassion and Body Esteem in Mothers' Healthy Eating Behaviours.

Noémie Carbonneau,Anne Holding,Julie Robitaille,Geneviève Lavigne

doi:10.3390/nu13113907

Noémie Carbonneau, Anne Holding + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13113907

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Abstract

Mothers’ eating behaviours are important to ensure the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Recent research has pointed to self-compassion, defined as extending kindness to oneself in times of perceived inadequacy or general suffering, as a trait associated with healthy forms of eating, such as intuitive eating, and reduced maladaptive forms of eating, such as emotional eating. However, little is known about the psychological mechanism through which self-compassion relates to healthy eating behaviours. This study examined 100 mothers’ levels of self-compassion, body esteem and eating behaviours. Structural equation modelling revealed that self-compassion was positively associated with diet quality and intuitive eating, while being negatively associated with emotional eating. Moreover, these links occurred, in part, due to higher body esteem. This points to a mechanism through which self-compassion may positively contribute to mothers’ healthy eating behaviours. The implications for eating outcomes and women’s health are discussed.

Highlights

There is increasing interest in the potential benefits of self-compassion—a kind approach toward oneself during personally challenging times [1,2]—as a promising approach to promoting psychological and physical well-being
We examine a specific facet of positive body image, namely, body esteem, that represents positive self-evaluations about one’s appearance and weight (e.g., [30,31])
The results showed, in line with our hypotheses, that higher levels of self-compassion were related to a higher diet quality, greater levels of intuitive eating, and lower levels of emotional eating

Summary

Introduction

There is increasing interest in the potential benefits of self-compassion—a kind approach toward oneself during personally challenging times [1,2]—as a promising approach to promoting psychological and physical well-being. Increasing research suggests that self-compassion protects against a negative body image and eating disorders in adults (e.g., [8,9]). More research is needed to examine how a self-compassionate attitude may promote positive, healthful relationships with food and body image. It appears especially valuable to examine such questions among mothers, who often feel the responsibility to model and transmit positive eating and body image attitudes to their children [12,13] while simultaneously grappling with these issues personally (e.g., [14,15]). Expanding the existing research, the present study aims to examine the associations of self-compassion with intuitive eating, emotional eating, and diet quality in a sample of mothers. Self-compassion is a general positive attitude characterized by the ability to relate to one’s feelings of suffering with warmth and understanding. Common humanity is the capacity to recognize that personal failures and feelings of inadequacies are shared by all, and that we are not alone in our struggles

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