Shimizu Mitsuru, Janke Kimberly, Rose Paul, Murphy Jason
Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, United States.
Front Public Health. 2025 Mar 12;13:1434091. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1434091. eCollection 2025.
A variety of psychological factors may influence weight gain among undergraduates. As one of the psychological factors that might influence such weight gain, this research introduces food conscientiousness, a behavioral tendency toward making healthier food choices.
In Phase 1 of the study, we developed a food conscientiousness scale. In Phase 2, we examined whether undergraduates demonstrated weight gain and whether it was smaller among those high in food conscientiousness.
The results indicated that college students demonstrated weight gain (2 lbs, on average) during the fall 2020 semester. Furthermore, food conscientiousness was significantly negatively associated with weight gain, independent of general conscientiousness. Importantly, this effect was neither moderated by where students lived nor by their perceived access to healthy food, suggesting that food conscientiousness can prevent weight gain regardless of lifestyle.
College undergraduates high (+1 ) in food conscientiousness reported smaller weight gain (0.24 lbs) compared to those low (-1 ) in food conscientiousness (3.93 lbs) during the first 2 months of a fall semester. The results suggest that food conscientiousness may be one of the psychological factors that shapes the extent to young adults gain weight.
多种心理因素可能会影响大学生的体重增加。作为可能影响此类体重增加的心理因素之一，本研究引入了食物自觉性，即一种做出更健康食物选择的行为倾向。
在研究的第一阶段，我们编制了一份食物自觉性量表。在第二阶段，我们考察了大学生是否出现体重增加，以及在食物自觉性较高的学生中体重增加是否较少。
结果表明，大学生在2020年秋季学期体重有所增加（平均增加2磅）。此外，食物自觉性与体重增加显著负相关，与一般自觉性无关。重要的是，这种影响既不受学生居住地点的调节，也不受他们认为获得健康食物的机会的调节，这表明无论生活方式如何，食物自觉性都可以防止体重增加。
在秋季学期的前两个月，食物自觉性高（+1）的大学生报告的体重增加（0.24磅）比食物自觉性低（-1）的大学生（3.93磅）少。结果表明，食物自觉性可能是影响年轻人体重增加程度的心理因素之一。
