Inflexible Eating Interacts with Picky Eating to Strengthen Relationships with Disordered Eating in Emerging Adulthood

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Picky eating (PE) is defined as difficulty trying new foods as well as a rejection of both novel and familiar foods resulting in a limited diet (Dovey et al., 2008; Taylor et al., 2015). Although picky eating is most frequently studied in young children, picky eating can persist into adolescence and emerging adulthood with important correlates and consequences. For example, PE may be related to disordered eating (e.g., Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) in emerging adulthood. Individuals with both PE and disordered eating report greater overall impairment and negative psychological outcomes than those with only PE (Wildes et al., 2012). Other literature points to mixed findings regarding the overlap of PE and disordered eating (Ellis et al., 2016; Zickgraf et al., 2016), highlighting the need to further explore this relationship.
One construct that may be related to PE in emerging adults is inflexible eating: eating based on adherence to rigid dietary rules and related to poor outcomes such as body image dissatisfaction. Inflexible eating has been shown to be a moderator between dietary restraint and disordered eating, suggesting that combined restraint and rigid cognitions surrounding food may be especially problematic (Duarte et al., 2017). The role of inflexible eating as a moderator in the relation between picky eating and disordered eating has not yet been examined.
The present study contributes to existing literature regarding PE in emerging adulthood by examining relationships between PE, disordered eating, and inflexible eating. Because previous research supports the relationship between inflexible eating and disordered eating, the present study examined inflexible eating as a moderator that may strengthen the relationship between PE and disordered eating.
Participants (N=509) were undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university who ranged in age from 18 to 25 years (M=19.96) and were primarily female (n=390), White (n=438), and middle class (n=270). In exchange for course credit, they completed a cross-sectional survey measuring PE (Adult Picky Eating Questionnaire; Ellis et al., 2017), disordered eating (Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994), and inflexible eating (Inflexible Eating Questionnaire; Duarte et al., 2017), as well as other subscales not discussed in the present study. The shape and weight concern subscales of the EDEQ were not included in analyses given previous research demonstrating their lack of overlap with PE (e.g., APA, 2013).
Positive bivariate relationships were observed between PE and inflexible eating, dietary restraint, and eating concerns subscales of the EDEQ, and overall eating pathology as measured by the global EDEQ score. In addition, the relationship between higher PE and dietary restraint (b=.39, p<.001), eating concerns (b=.64, p<.001), and overall eating pathology (b=.59, p<.001) was moderated by higher inflexible eating. In other words, emerging adults with rigid rules and behaviors surrounding eating, who also engage in PE, may also experience worsened disordered eating attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions. Researchers and clinicians interested in concurrent PE and disordered eating should consider inflexible eating given its potential to worsened disordered eating outcomes.

Authors

• Amy Jordan, Bowling Green State University
  Presenting Author

• Wesley R. Barnhart, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsay Hamilton, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mercedes Pratt, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dara Robin Musher-Eizenman, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author