1. Modeling the associations between internal body orientation, body appreciation, and intuitive eating among early-adult and middle-adult men and women: A multigroup structural invariance analysis
- Author
-
Christopher A. Modica
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,050103 clinical psychology ,Social Psychology ,050109 social psychology ,Structural equation modeling ,Age and gender ,Eating ,Age groups ,Body Image ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,General Psychology ,Applied Psychology ,Aged ,Intuitive eating ,Middle Adult ,05 social sciences ,Mean age ,Feeding Behavior ,Middle Aged ,Structural invariance ,Psychotherapy ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Body orientation ,Female ,Psychology ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
This cross-sectional study investigated the associations among internal body orientation, body appreciation, intuitive eating, age, and BMI in men and women between 30 and 70 years old as delineated in the acceptance model of intuitive eating. Self-report measures were administered to a final sample of 522 individuals consisting of early-adult men (ages 30–44; n = 153), middle-adult men (ages 45–70; n = 108), early-adult women (ages 30–44; n = 135), and middle-adult women (ages 45–70; n = 126). Overall mean age was 45.03 (SD = 10.95). Structural equation modeling evidenced that, for both age groups of men and women, internal body orientation was positively associated with body appreciation and body appreciation was positively associated with intuitive eating. Internal body orientation was positively associated with intuitive eating in each group, except early-adult women. The associations among age and BMI with the aforementioned variables were inconsistent. Although evidencing measurement non-invariance among a number of parameters, multigroup structural invariance analyses showed that the associations among internal body orientation, body appreciation, intuitive eating, age, and BMI were invariant across each gender and age. These results further confirm components of the acceptance model of intuitive eating among men and women in early-adulthood and middle-adulthood.
- Published
- 2021