Relationship among Eating Behavior, Effortful Control, and Personality Traits in Japanese Students: Cross-sectional Study
Katsumasa Momoi
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan. & Faculty of Health and Welfare, Tokushima Bunri University, 180 Nishihama-hoji, Yamashiro-cho, Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8514, Japan.
Kumiko Ohara
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
Katsuyasu Kouda
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Kindai University, 377-2 Oono-Higashi, Osaka-Sayama 589-8511, Japan.
Tomoki Mase
Faculty of Human Development and Education, Kyoto Women’s University, 35 Kitahiyoshi-cho, Imakumano, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 605-8501, Japan.
Chiemi Miyawaki
Department of Early Childhood Education, Heian Jogakuin (St. Agnes’) College, Shimotachiuri-Nishihairu, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 602-8013, Japan.
Tomoko Fujitani
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
Yoshimitsu Okita
Graduate School of Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan.
Rumiko Murayama
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
Harunobu Nakamura *
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Purpose: Effortful control is the ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform instead a subdominant response. The Big Five personality traits have been widely used to describe personality in terms of five independent factors. In this study, we investigated the relationships among eating behavior, personality, and effortful control in Japanese university students.
Methods: Participants were 576 Japanese university students (422 males and 154 females). Participants completed a questionnaire measuring effortful control, Big Five personality traits, and eating behaviors.
Results: Restrained eating was positively associated with effortful control in both males and females whereas emotional eating and external eating were negatively associated with effortful control in both genders. Extraversion was positively associated with emotional eating and external eating, whereas other indicators of the Big Five personality traits were negatively associated with emotional eating and external eating.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that eating behaviors are associated with both effortful control and the Big Five personality traits. However, the direction of the associations of effortful control and Big Five personality traits with restrained eating differed from the associations of effortful control and personality with emotional eating and external eating.
Keywords: Personality traits, effortful control, eating behavior, students