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Metacognitive beliefs and emotional eating in adolescents

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Abstract

Purpose

Metacognition refers to how people think about their own thoughts. Existing studies have found that compared to healthy controls, individuals with eating disorders manifest elevated levels of dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs. No studies to date have investigated what role metacognitive beliefs play in the manifestation of emotional eating, a well-known risk factor for the development of eating disorders. The purpose of the current study was to assess the associations between metacognitive beliefs and emotional eating in a community sample of adolescents.

Methods

Participants were 135 middle school students (Mean age = 13.62 years; SD = 0.57) who completed the Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Children and Adolescents-Short-Form, Metacognition Questionnaire for Children, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children, and a demographic questionnaire.

Results

Participants classified as high emotional eaters reported statistically significant higher negative metacognitive beliefs (Mean = 15.56; SD = 4.22) compared to participants classified as low emotional eaters (Mean = 12.85; SD = 4.31; p ≤ 0.001; t =  − 3.69). There was a significant positive association between emotional eating and negative metacognitive beliefs in the hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis (standardized beta coefficient = 0.25; p < 0.05) after controlling for socio-demographic variables and negative affect.

Conclusions

The current findings provide preliminary evidence that negative metacognitive beliefs may play a role in the manifestation of emotional eating in adolescents. Future prospective studies are needed to elucidate the temporal associations between emotional eating and negative metacognitive beliefs in this population.

Level of Evidence

Level III, case-control analytic study.

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Funding

No funding was received for the present study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97334, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Christine A. Limbers, Emma Greenwood, Katie Shea & Thomas A. Fergus

Authors
  1. Christine A. Limbers
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  2. Emma Greenwood
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  3. Katie Shea
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  4. Thomas A. Fergus
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Correspondence to Christine A. Limbers.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Baylor University Institutional Review Board ID 1351156-5) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Parental permission and informed consent were obtained from all study participants.

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Limbers, C.A., Greenwood, E., Shea, K. et al. Metacognitive beliefs and emotional eating in adolescents. Eat Weight Disord 26, 2281–2286 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01078-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01078-0

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