Abstract
The management of eating behavior plays an important role in health maintenance. In this study, we investigated the relationship between eating behavior and effortful control in female young adults. Participants completed the questionnaire measures of effortful control and eating behaviors and Stroop cognitive interference task. The results showed that restrained eating was positively correlated with activation control; emotional eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory control and attentional control; external eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory, activation, and attentional control. The scores for activation control and restrained eating were higher for participants with a low Stroop error rate than for those with a high Stroop error rate. These results indicate that restrained eating has a different association with effortful control than doing emotional and external eating.
Highlights
The management of eating behavior plays an important role in health maintenance
The results showed that restrained eating was positively correlated with activation control; emotional eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory control and attentional control; external eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory, activation, and attentional control
Emotional eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory and attentional control, and external eating was negatively correlated with inhibitory control, activation control, and attentional control
Summary
The management of eating behavior plays an important role in health maintenance. Effortful control is the ability to inhibit a dominant response and to perform instead a subdominant response [1]. Effortful control is the ability to voluntarily activate or inhibit impulses to act [2]. Patients with eating disorders and bingeing/ purging behavior scored significantly lower on the Effortful Control Scale (ECS) [6]. Some research shows no association between effortful control and eating behaviors [8], other research indicates that lower effortful control is associated with more eating disorder symptoms [9]. In one study, eating disorder symptoms were related to low levels of effortful control and strongly related to high levels of Behavioral Inhibition Scale reactivity (anxiety) [10].
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
