Networks of stress, affect and eating behaviour: anticipated stress coping predicts goal-congruent eating in young adults

Affective and Social Predictors of Food Consumption During the COVID-19 Lockdown

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 lockdowns were linked to a surge in unhealthy food-related behaviors, potentially as an attempt to cope with disrupted social homeostasis. Here, we tested bidirectional associations between momentary psychological states and prospective food consumption and the moderation of these associations by quality and quantity of social interactions.

METHODS

We conducted a preregistered ecological momentary assessment study in Austria, Italy, and Germany during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Multiple times a day for 7 consecutive days, 798 participants (557 women, mean age = 31.88 years) reported on momentary stress; mood; wanting of food rich in sugar, fat, and salt; consumption and enjoyment since the last prompt; and quantity and quality of social interactions since the last prompt.

RESULTS

Momentary stress was positively linked to food wanting, but not to prospective food consumption. Mood valence and energetic arousal positively predicted prospective food consumption and enjoyment. The effect of mood valence was especially prominent when participants reported having more social interactions. Food consumption was linked to a prospective reduction in stress and an increase in calmness, suggesting that it has regulatory functions for affective states. Exploratory findings showed that some of these effects generalize to other reward types.

CONCLUSIONS

During the lockdown, food may have been used to maintain an already positive affective state rather than upregulating an aversive state. Social facilitation of eating may have been especially prominent due to the prioritization of social needs at the start of an extraordinarily challenging period, possibly orchestrated by the postulated social homeostasis system.

Bidirectional associations between affect and food craving within and between individuals: A mega-analysis

The empirical robustness of emotional eating and stress eating - the tendency to eat in response to affective experience - is under ongoing debate. Is this a general phenomenon or is this seen only in certain groups? And, if so, can such interindividual differences be reliably assessed with self-report questionnaires? Here, we approach this question not through measuring overt eating - a behavior that is subject to several contextual conditions - but through food craving, an important precursor to food intake that can be triggered rapidly and involuntarily. We also study temporal ordering, i.e., whether affect cooccurs with, precedes, or follows craving. We pooled 8 ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies comprising 764 participants answering 4-6 daily questionnaires for 7-20 days (mega-analysis). Trait-level eating style questionnaire scores were modeled as moderators for potential emotion/stress-craving relationships. Negatively toned affect (feeling bored, irritated, stressed) but also positive affect (cheerful, enthusiastic, relaxation with reverse direction) co-occurred with more craving. Feeling bored, stressed, or less relaxed, calm, and cheerful was also associated with later craving which, in turn, related to feeling more relaxed and less stressed at the next time point. Eating style questionnaires moderated concurrent but not prospective affect-craving or craving-affect relationships. Our results highlight the disparities between questionnaires and EMA measures, particularly for prospective relationships. Affect and craving seem to interact in close temporal proximity in this mostly healthy weight sample whereas the predictive validity of eating style questionnaires for naturalistic contexts is limited. We suggest a refined terminology to reflect these findings.

Taming "hanger" and falling prey to boredom-emotional and stress-eating in 801 healthy individuals using ecological momentary assessment

Emotional eating and Stress Eating concepts hold that affective experiences can instill the desire for palatable foods. The empirical evidence for such couplings between affective and appetitive systems, however, is mixed and it remains unclear which one precedes the other or whether interindividual differences in such relationships exist. To study the temporal relations between a range of negative and positive emotions and stress on the one hand and snacking behavior on the other, we analyzed over 40.000 questionnaire entries obtained through ecological momentary assessment from 801 participants across nine different studies. Several trait-level eating style questionnaire scores were modelled as moderators for the emotion/stress - snacking relationships. Results showed that stronger boredom was followed by more snacking. Only irritation showed the pattern of reduction following snacking that would be predicted by emotion regulation accounts of emotional eating. Restrained eaters showed larger increases in boredom after snacking (compared to not snacking) than unrestrained eaters. Eating style questionnaires did not significantly moderate any other emotion - snacking - emotion relationships. Together with other recent findings from this dataset (Aulbach et al., n.d.) the present results suggest that eating style questionnaires capture tendencies to experience food cravings, but not snacking, as the latter might be 'gated' by several internal and external conditions that our EMA data and the trait questionnaire do not capture well. Accordingly, we suggest a novel terminology for affect-eating relationships that increases precision on the temporal (affects before or after eating/craving) and the phenomenological (snacking, craving) level.

Daily stress and emotions in relation to fear of negative and positive evaluation

Fear of negative (FNE) and positive (FPE) evaluation constitute distinct components of social anxiety and relate to altered affectivity. It is unclear whether individuals with strong FNE/FPE overreact to social stressors only or to more unspecific ones as well. The present set of three studies (n = 109 and n = 97 healthy individuals in study 1/2, n = 49 patients with social anxiety disorder in study 3) assessed whether reactivity to various daily stressors and non-specific momentary stress/emotions assessed through ecological momentary assessment depend on individuals' level of FPE/FNE. Almost all relationships with FPE/FNE were explained by depressive symptoms, except for a unique association of FNE with reactivity to stressors from the distant social network. Relationships of FNE with momentary global stress and emotions were mixed, but again explained by depressive symptoms. More depressive symptoms were associated with higher stress, negative affect, and most stressor types as well as lower positive affect in all studies. These results show that for social stressors from the distant social network, FNE has explanatory power. They further document the role of depressive affect for reactivity to a wide range of everyday stressors and question the need for specific instruments assessing FPE/FNE unless stressors are explicitly social-evaluative in nature.

Within- and between-person associations of time-varying determinants with snacking in older adults: an ecological momentary assessment study

Promoting healthy snacking is important in addressing malnutrition, overweight and obesity among an ageing population. However, little is known about the factors underlying snacking behaviour in older adults. The present study aimed to explore within- and between-person associations between determinants (i.e. intention, visibility of snacks, social modelling and emotions) and snacking behaviours (i.e. decision to snack, health factor of the snack and portion size) in older adults (60+). Conducting a two-part intensive longitudinal design, data were analysed from forty-eight healthy older adults consisting of (1) an event-based self-report ecological momentary assessment (EMA) diary every time they had a snack and (2) a time-based EMA questionnaire on their phone five times per day. Analysis through generalised linear mixed models indicated that higher intention to snack healthily leads to healthier snacking while higher levels of social modelling and cheerfulness promote unhealthier choices within individuals. At the between-person level, similar results were found for intention and social modelling. Visibility of a snack increased portion size at both a within- and between-person level, while the intention to eat a healthy snack only increased portion size at the between-person level. No associations were found between the decision to snack and all determinants. This is the first study to investigate both within- and between-person associations between time-varying determinants and snacking in older adults. Such information holds the potential for incorporation into just-in-time adaptive interventions, allowing for personalised tailoring, more effective promotion of healthier snacking behaviours and thus pursuing the challenge of healthy ageing.

Development of Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC): A versatile tool for monitoring appetite over long periods

Understanding how an intervention impacts appetite in real-life settings and over several days remains a challenging and under-explored research question. To this end, we developed Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC), a form of ecological momentary assessment that combines automated text messaging with an online platform. Participants report their appetite using visual analogue scales (hunger, desire to eat, and fullness) and a virtual portion-size selection task. In two separate studies, we assessed the feasibility and test-retest reliability of MAC. Participants were prompted every 2 hours over a 14-hour window, and they repeated this assessment over two consecutive weekdays. For each participant, we calculated a daily time-averaged area under the curve (AUC) for each appetite measure. In Study One (N = 25) time-averaged AUC was significantly positively correlated across test days for hunger (r = 0.563, p = .003), desire to eat (r = 0.515, p = .008) and prospective portion size (r = 0.914, p < .001), but not for fullness (r = 0.342, p = .094). Participants completed 95% of MACs (380 of 400), and we used participant feedback to improve the MAC tool and study protocol for Study Two. In Study Two (N = 31), 94% of MACs were completed (468 of 496). Across days, time-averaged AUC was significantly positively correlated for hunger (r = 0.595, p = < .001), fullness (r = 0.501, p = .004), desire to eat (r = 0.585, p < .001), and prospective portion size (r = 0.757, p < .001). Together, these studies suggest that MAC could be an acceptable and reliable tool to track appetite throughout the day. In the future, MAC could be used to explore the impact of weight-loss interventions on natural fluctuations in appetite.

Goal pursuit increases more after dietary success than after dietary failure: examining conflicting theories of self-regulation using ecological momentary assessment

BACKGROUND

Maintaining a healthy body weight and reaching long-term dietary goals requires ongoing self-monitoring and behavioral adjustments. How individuals respond to successes and failures is described in models of self-regulation: while cybernetic models propose that failures lead to increased self-regulatory efforts and successes permit a reduction of such efforts, motivational models (e.g., social-cognitive theory) make opposite predictions. Here, we tested these conflicting models in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) context and explored whether effort adjustments are related to inter-individual differences in perceived self-regulatory success in dieting (i.e., weight management).

METHODS

Using linear mixed effects models, we tested in 174 diet-interested individuals whether current day dietary success or failure (e.g., on Monday) was followed by self-regulatory effort adjustment for the next day (e.g., on Tuesday) across 14 days. Success vs. failure was operationalized with two EMA items: first, whether food intake was higher vs. lower than usual and second, whether food intake was perceived as more vs. less goal-congruent than usual. Trait-level perceived self-regulatory success in dieting was measured on a questionnaire.

RESULTS

Intended self-regulatory effort increased more strongly after days with dietary success (i.e., eating less than usual / rating intake as goal-congruent) than after days with dietary failure (i.e., eating more than usual / rating intake as goal-incongruent), especially in those individuals with lower scores on perceived self-regulatory success in dieting.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support mechanisms proposed by social-cognitive theory, especially in unsuccessful dieters. Thus, future dietary interventions could focus on preventing the decrease in self-regulatory effort after instances of dietary failures and thereby mitigate the potential risk that a single dietary failure initiates a downward spiral into unhealthy eating.

Effectiveness of a text-messaging intervention on intuitive eating: a randomised controlled trial

Intuitive eating (IE) is a concept based on mind-body integration of instinct, emotion and rational thought, to improve eating behaviours, physical and mental health. Several attempts were developed to teach IE principles including text-messaging interventions given that they are easy to implement and low cost.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a 5-week text message-based IE intervention on IE, while correcting for perceived stress (PS) and self-compassion (SC).

DESIGN

A randomised controlled trial.

SETTING

Online, in Lebanon.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults (n 195) were randomised into one of three groups: the active IE group receiving IE-related messages with a practice exercise, the passive IE group receiving only IE-related messages and the control group receiving general health-related tips. Ten messages were delivered over 5 weeks. Two follow-ups were made: directly post-intervention and 7 weeks later. Baseline data and follow-ups included demographics, nutrition-related variables and measures of IE, SC and PS.

RESULTS

Results indicated improvements in IE scores in the two intervention groups (P = 0·05), with the passive IE group showing the most improvement. Also, a significant improvement in SC (Λ = 0·88, F (2, 63) = 4·40, P = 0·01) and reduction in PS (Λ = 0·86, F (2, 63) = 5·21, P = 0·008) were observed in the active IE group.

CONCLUSION

Text-messaging interventions might be efficient in enhancing IE. Results shed light on the need for further large-scale interventions that use visual aids and provide practical guidance to teach IE, while further characterising the relation between IE, SC and stress.

Auditing the research practices and statistical analyses of the group-level temporal network approach to psychological constructs: A systematic scoping review

Network analyses have become increasingly common within the field of psychology, and temporal network analyses in particular are quickly gaining traction, with many of the initial articles earning substantial interest. However, substantial heterogeneity exists within the study designs and methodology, rendering it difficult to form a comprehensive view of its application in psychology research. Since the field is quickly growing and since there have been many study-to-study variations in terms of choices made by researchers when collecting, processing, and analyzing data, we saw the need to audit this field and formulate a comprehensive view of current temporal network analyses. To systematically chart researchers' practices when conducting temporal network analyses, we reviewed articles conducting temporal network analyses on psychological variables (published until March 2021) in the framework of a scoping review. We identified 43 articles and present the detailed results of how researchers are currently conducting temporal network analyses. A commonality across results concerns the wide variety of data collection and analytical practices, along with a lack of consistency between articles about what is reported. We use these results, along with relevant literature from the fields of ecological momentary assessment and network analysis, to formulate recommendations on what type of data is suited for temporal network analyses as well as optimal methods to preprocess and analyze data. As the field is new, we also discuss key future steps to help usher the field's progress forward and offer a reporting checklist to help researchers navigate conducting and reporting temporal network analyses.

Emotional eating experiences of individuals with severe mental disorders: A qualitative study

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to understand the emotional eating experiences of individuals with severe mental disorders.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The study used a descriptive qualitative design. Data were collected from 19 individuals who displayed emotional eating behavior and a severe mental disorder.

FINDINGS

The main themes of this study are "Triggers," "Emotional Eating Process," and "Feelings after Emotional Eating." Participants stated that negative emotions and certain initiating factors were the triggers of their emotional eating; they also experienced feelings of regret and guilt after emotional eating.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

It was concluded that programs for regulating the eating behaviors of individuals with severe mental disorders should be organized and that psychosocial interventions to prevent emotional eating among these individuals should be integrated into the programs' contents.

The dynamic network associations of food craving, restrained eating, hunger and negative emotions

OBJECTIVE

Food craving, restrained eating, hunger, and negative emotions may predict and reinforce one another. However, less is known about how they interact together as a complex system in daily life. Therefore, we used a dynamic network approach to examine the associations between food craving, restrained eating, hunger and negative emotions in daily life.

METHODS

Food craving, restrained eating, hunger and negative emotions were measured using ecological momentary assessment three times a day over ten days in a community sample in Israel (n = 123). A two-step multilevel vector auto-regression network analysis was used to estimate temporal, contemporaneous and between-persons networks.

RESULTS

In the temporal network, restrained eating was the most central predictor of eating behaviors and negative emotions, predicting food craving and hunger as well as sadness and loneliness. Food craving was also predicted by hunger and stress, and hunger predicted loneliness. In the contemporaneous network, food craving was associated with hunger and feeling bored, and higher anger was associated with lower restrained eating. Stress and sadness were central negative emotions in the models.

DISCUSSION

This study suggests possible temporal and contemporaneous relationships between food craving, restrained eating, hunger and negative emotions, emphasizing their complex interactions in daily life. Restrained eating and stress should be investigated as potential targets for interventions addressing food craving and overeating.

The Use of Mobile-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment (mEMA) Methodology to Assess Dietary Intake, Food Consumption Behaviours and Context in Young People: A Systematic Review

Mobile-based ecological momentary assessment (mEMA) offers a novel method for dietary assessment and may reduce recall bias and participant burden. This review evaluated mEMA methodology and the feasibility, acceptability and validity as a dietary assessment method in young people. Five databases were searched from January 2008 to September 2021 for studies including healthy young people aged 16–30 years and used mEMA for obtaining dietary intake data, food consumption behaviours and/or contextual factors. Data on the method used to administer mEMA, compliance with recording and validation were extracted. A total of 46 articles from 39 independent studies were included, demonstrating a wide variation in mEMA methods. Signal-contingent prompting (timed notification to record throughout the day) was used in 26 studies, 9 used event-contingent (food consumption triggered recordings), while 4 used both. Monitoring periods varied and most studies reported a compliance rate of 80% or more. Two studies found mEMA to be burdensome and six reported mEMA as easy to use. Most studies (31/39) reported using previously validated questions. mEMA appears to be a feasible and acceptable methodology to assess dietary intake and food consumption in near real time.

Clustering individuals' temporal patterns of affective states, hunger, and food craving by latent class vector-autoregression

Background

Eating plays an important role in mental and physical health and is influenced by affective (e.g., emotions, stress) and appetitive (i.e., food craving, hunger) states, among others. Yet, substantial temporal variability and marked individual differences in these relationships have been reported. Exploratory data analytical approaches that account for variability between and within individuals might benefit respective theory development and subsequent confirmatory studies.

Methods

Across 2 weeks, 115 individuals (83% female) reported on momentary affective states, hunger, and food craving six times a day. Based on these ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data we investigated whether latent class vector-autoregression (LCVAR) can identify different clusters of participants based on similarities in their temporal associations between these states.

Results

LCVAR allocated participants into three distinct clusters. Within clusters, we found both positive and negative associations between affective states and hunger/food craving, which further varied temporally across lags. Associations between hunger/food craving and subsequent affective states were more pronounced than vice versa. Clusters differed on eating-related traits such as stress-eating and food craving as well as on EMA completion rates.

Discussion

LCVAR provides novel opportunities to analyse time-series data in affective science and eating behaviour research and uncovers that traditional models of affect-eating relationships might be overly simplistic. Temporal associations differ between subgroups of individuals with specific links to eating-related traits. Moreover, even within subgroups, differences in associations across time and specific affective states can be observed. To account for this high degree of variability, future research and theories should consider individual differences in direction and time lag of associations between affective states and eating behaviour, daytime and specific affective states. In addition to that, methodological implications for EMA research are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12966-022-01293-1.

Analysis of Self-Regulation of Eating Behaviors within Polish Adolescents' COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

The self-regulation of eating behaviors (suppression of behavioral short-term impulse to consume food products in the interest of pursuing long-term weight goals), has been an important determinant for adopting a healthy lifestyle in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in adults, but there have been no such studies conducted in the population of adolescents in this period. The aim of the presented study is to analyze self-regulation of eating behaviors in the population-based sample of Polish adolescents within the Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study. The Self-Regulation of Eating Behavior Questionnaire (SREBQ) was used to assess self-regulation of eating behaviors in the studied population of 1126 Polish adolescents (818 females and 308 males), aged 15−20, recruited based on a random quota sampling within a national sample. Based on the screening questions of the SREBQ, 145 individuals were excluded from the analysis. The participants of the study were categorized based on their gender, body mass index, body mass index change during the COVID-19 pandemic, and food products declared as tempting. The major factors associated with SREBQ score were body mass index change and tempting food products. The respondents losing weight during the COVID-19 pandemic were characterized by a higher SREBQ score than those maintaining stable body mass or gaining weight (3.4 vs. 3.2 vs. 3.2; p = 0.0001). The respondents declaring both sweet and salty food products as tempting were characterized by a lower SREBQ score than those declaring only sweet, only salty, or declaring no tempting products (3.2 vs. 3.4 vs. 3.4 vs. 3.4; p < 0.0001). The major factors associated with SREBQ categories were gender, body mass index change, and tempting food products. A higher share of respondents characterized by a high self-regulation of eating behaviors was observed for males than for females (27.4% vs. 18.8%; p = 0.0142); for respondents losing weight during the COVID-19 pandemic than for respondents gaining weight (25.9% vs. 15.5%; p = 0.0423); as well as for respondents declaring no tempting products than those declaring both sweet and salty food products (38.3% vs. 18.2%; p < 0.0001). It was concluded that the self-regulation of eating behaviors in adolescents is closely associated with food products perceived as tempting by them, as well as with gender. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the low self-regulation of eating behaviors was a significant determinant of the body mass gain. Taking this into account, female adolescents characterized by a low self-regulation of eating behaviors especially should be subjected to a dedicated intervention program to prevent overweight and obesity.

Healthy eating in the wild: An experience-sampling study of how food environments and situational factors shape out-of-home dietary success

Across many parts of the world, people increasingly eat out-of-home. Simultaneously, many people strive to eat a healthier diet, but it remains unclear to what extent and how eating out helps or hinders people in achieving their dietary goals. The present study investigated how characteristics of the physical micro-environment in out-of-home food outlets (e.g., cafeterias, supermarkets, and restaurants) influence the healthiness of food choices among a sample of German adults with a goal to eat healthier. We used an experience sampling method to obtain detailed information about people's motivation for selecting a specific food outlet and the outlet's micro-environment. We further asked for people's mood, visceral state, and thoughts during their food choice and obtained evaluations of food choices reported near their occurrence and in externally valid conditions. The data was collected via a mobile app over a period of six to eleven days between November and December of 2018 in Germany with a sample of 409 participants (n_obs = 6447). We find that even health-conscious people select food outlets and their respective micro-environments based on short-term goals, such as ease, taste, and speed of a consumption episode rather than long-term health outcomes. Using multiple regression, we show that micro-environments that promote healthy food, make such food more appealing and easier to select facilitate healthy food choices. We further identify some of the psychological mechanisms through which the micro-environment can affect food choices, as well as how individual characteristics moderate the relationship between specific micro-environmental factors and goal success. Taken together, our findings suggest the opportunity for, and arguably also necessity of, reshaping food environments to better facilitate healthier choices and support public health in the face of increasing out-of-home food consumption and the adverse consequences of unhealthy diets.

Stress-induced hyperphagia: empirical characterization of stress-overeaters

Background

Stressful situations can have an impact on an individual’s eating behavior. People vulnerable to the influence of stress tend to change the quantity and quality of their food intake. Variables such as sex and body mass index (BMI) seem to be related to this stress-eating behavior, but it is rather unclear what factors account to the parameters associated with stress-eating behavior. The aim of this survey was to identify further characteristics of adults in Germany related to stress-overeating, focusing on stress perception, coping, eating motives and comfort foods as well as personality types.

Methods

This online survey was performed throughout Germany and comprised a 38-item pre-tested questionnaire. Stress-induced overeating was classified based on the Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES). Moreover, validated questionnaires were used to identify additional characteristics of stress eaters. Participants were recruited using a convenience sampling approach, and data were collected between January and April 2021.

Results

The overall sample consisted of 1222 participants (female 80.8%, aged 31.5±12.8). 42.1% of participants were identified as stress-overeaters. Among the remaining group, 78.9% stated to eat less, 21.1% to eat equally when stressed. Female participants had a higher mean SSES score compared to male participants. The BMI was positively correlated to SSES, r(1220)=0.28, p>0.005. ‘Agreeableness’ (BigFive) was found to be a negative predictor of stress-overeating. The most pronounced difference in eating motives (The Eating Motivation Survey, TEMS) was found for ‘Affect Regulation’ and ‘Weight Control’.

Conclusions

The results indicate that stress-overeating affects a large proportion of the surveyed population. BMI, personality and eating motives additionally characterize stress-overeaters and may contribute to develop new approaches to address unhealthy stress-related eating patterns.

Perceived Stress and Increased Food Consumption during the 'Third Wave' of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of people worldwide. An increase in perceived stress can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as increased food consumption. The aim of this study was to find the level of perceived stress and its relationship with increased food consumption during the "third wave" of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. This was a cross-sectional study that employed anonline self-reported frequency of consumption questionnaire and the Perceived Stress Scale-10. A total of 637 subjects participated and 83.6% of respondents had moderate or high stress-more prevalent in the female and young respondents. Moreover, 36.1% of respondents reported that they had increased the frequency of consumption of some foods, mainly nuts, snacks, and jellybeans, along with coffee, tea, cocoa, and soft drinks. Eating between meals was more pronounced in those with high stress (65.1%) than in those with moderate stress (40.4%) and low stress (20.2%). Furthermore, the respondents with high stress reported greater weight gain. Thus, the results show that the level of perceived stress during the 'third wave' of this pandemic increased food consumption.