•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Obesity is a major public health concern in the United States, with nearly half of the adult population considered obese. Conceptual models of obesity have suggested that efficacious treatment and prevention for obesity should address the underlying processes involved in unhealthy behaviors, including the potential role of psychological variables. As such, the current study sought to examine the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety-related sensations) sub-facets of physical, cognitive, and social concerns with food cravings related to (1) an intense desire to eat, (2) anticipation of relief from negative states and feelings/improvement in mood that may result from eating, (3) obsessive preoccupation with food or lack of control over eating, and (4) craving as a physiological state. Participants in this study included 161 adults (60.9% female, Mage = 31.55, SD = 10.73) who attended a baseline appointment for a larger randomized controlled trial focused on improving weight-related behaviors. Results highlighted the incremental role of AS social concerns as a statistically significant predictor of all food cravings processes. Moreover, AS cognitive concerns evidenced a statistically significant inverse relationship with food cravings related to an intense desire to eat. Future work is needed to extend this current model to determine the explanatory role of AS and food cravings with objective eating behavior.

Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-7358-033X

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS