The Association Between Eating-Compensatory Behaviors and Affective Temperament in a Brazilian Population

I Did 10,000 Steps so I Earned This Treat: Problematic Smartwatch Use and Exercise Tracking Associations with Compensatory Eating and Sedentary Activity

Smartwatches are digital devices, similar to smartphones, and come with the possibility of problematic use. Problematic technology use is the experience of psychological distress or reduced daily functioning in response to excessive or addictive technology use. The purpose of this study was to explore whether problematic use of smartwatch devices for exercise tracking influences user's health behaviors such as eating habits and sedentary activity. An online survey was conducted among college-aged smartwatch users (n = 221). Results showed that using smartwatches for exercise tracking has a positive relationship with compensatory eating behavior (i.e., increasing caloric intake after exercise) when the use is higher in problematic use. This study concludes that although smartwatch devices are promoted to aid healthy behaviors, their impact on positive health outcomes may be limited for some users, to the extent that compensatory eating can derail fitness goals and may exacerbate eating behaviors. Future research should aim to develop health messaging for smartwatch users to make them aware of the potential for compensatory eating behavior to undermine their goals in the face of excessive smartwatch use for fitness purposes.

Eating Disorders and Disturbed Eating Behaviors Underlying Body Weight Differences in Patients Affected by Endometriosis: Preliminary Results from an Italian Cross-Sectional Study

This study aimed to characterize the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs), disturbed eating behaviors (DEBs), and emotional eating attitudes (EEAs) among patients affected by endometriosis in order to understand a potential crosslink between this impacting gynecological disease and a Body Mass Index shift. A total of 30 patients were recruited at an endometriosis outpatient clinic in Bologna and were assessed by using standardized instruments and specific questionnaires for EDs, DEBs, and EEAs. Sociodemographic information and endometriosis clinical features and history information were collected by adopting a specific questionnaire. Retrospective reports of lifetime Body Mass Index (BMI) changes, current BMI, peak pain severity during the last menstrual period, and the average of pain intensity during the last intermenstrual period were used for a correlation with the mean score from eating-behavior scales' assessment. The preliminary results indicate that, although only 3.33% of endometriosis patients are affected by ED, statistically significant differences at the mean scores of DEBs and EEAs assessment scales were found by stratifying patients on the basis of BMI levels at risk for infertility and coronary heart disease and on the basis of moderate/severe pain levels. The enrichment of the sample size and the recruitment of the control group to complete the study enrollment will allow us to investigate more complex and strong correlation findings and to assess the prevalence of EDs among endometriosis patients.

Investigation of the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament and eating attitude in adults

BACKGROUND

Current research on eating attitude has focused primarily on female perspective (Kapoor et al. in J Educ Health Promot 11(80):1-7, 2022; Piko et al. in J Prev Med Hyg. 63(1):83-89, 2022). To extend cross-gender approaches, this study aimed to examine the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament, and eating attitude and to see whether these three concepts differ between men and women.

METHODS

The sample group consists of a total of 308 participants, 206 (66.9%) women and 102 (33.1%) men, living in Bursa and participating in the research voluntarily. In the study, Sociodemographic Data Form was used to obtain personal information of the participants, Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form 3 was used to evaluate early maladaptive schemas, Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San-Diego Autoquestionnaire was used to evaluate temperament characteristics and Eating Attitude Test was used to evaluate eating attitudes.

RESULTS

As a result of the study, a moderate and positive relationship was found between the Defectiveness, Emotional Inhibition, Enmeshment/Dependence, Failure, Abandonment, Vulnerability to Harm or Illness, Negativity/Pessimism schemas and eating attitude. Among these schemas, Defectiveness was found to be the best predictor of deterioration in eating attitude. A weak and positive relationship was found between the scores obtained from the Eating Attitude Test and Cyclothymic and Irritable temperaments, and a moderate positive relationship with Anxious temperament. Among these temperaments, Anxious temperament was found to be the best predictor of deterioration in eating attitude.

CONCLUSIONS

When the results were examined, a relationship was observed between early maladaptive schemas and temperament types, and this relationship was examined in detail. The results obtained at the end of the study were discussed and suggestions were made for future studies.

Role of socioeconomic and parental involvement factors on children foundational learning skills based on MICS (2017-2018) data Punjab, Pakistan

Developing countries lack studies investigated the socioeconomic and parental role on students’ learning skills. This study is helpful to detect bottlenecks in the foundational learning skills (reading skills and numeracy skills) in the education system of Pakistan. Reading skills of children are found better who had no functional disabilities. Mothers with higher education had a significant positive contribution toward children learning skills. Children deprived of books for reading in appropriate language had a negative impact on their reading skills. Rich children had predominantly higher possibilities of good learning skills than poor children. Parents who had not attended children’s school to discuss child progress had a significantly negative effect on children’s numeracy skills. Overall parental involvement in some forms had insignificantly improved children reading and numeracy skills in Punjab, Pakistan.

Coping with stress and personality: A study in pregnancies complicated by hypertension

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this work is to investigate the role of personality in pregnancies complicated by hypertension, thru analysis of structure and associations between negative affect and coping strategies, and their role towards psychological distress.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study with 343 women, where 192 pregnancies complicated by hypertension, was carried out by employing the following tools: the five-factor model (Big Five), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Jalowiec's Coping Inventory. Two complementary strategies were carried out: an exploratory approach on the interactions between latent variables and a confirmatory technique.

RESULTS

Coping strategies seem to be dissociated in the hypertensive group, and these participants tend to use strategies according to their personality, mostly emotion focused, extraversion, and neuroticism. The extraversion model exclusively shows an acceptable goodness-of-fit after a structural equation modelling. A multigroup analysis reached a full metric invariance level for extraversion.

CONCLUSIONS

These results are of interest for both clinical and research settings. Prenatal screening and associated interventions may reduce perinatal negative affective states and related pregnancy complications.

Psychological Risk Factors for the Development of Restrictive and Bulimic Eating Behaviors: A Polish and Vietnamese Comparison

The aim of this paper is to identify psychological factors which are culture specific or common predictors for restrictive and bulimic behaviors towards eating for young women raised in different cultures. The study included 661 young women from Poland (n = 233) and Vietnam (n = 428). Subjects filled-in the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-3) and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS), and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Women form Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than were their Polish peers, but Vietnamese showed a lower level of preoccupation with being overweight and fear of obesity. Intercultural differences indicate that Vietnamese women show greater intensities for psychological variables, connected with restrictive and bulimic eating behaviors, verified in the research model: low self-esteem, personal alienation, interpersonal insecurity, interpersonal alienation, emotional dysregulation, interoceptive deficits, perfectionism and asceticism, and anxiety.

Comparing the Personality Traits of Patients with an Eating Disorder versus a Dual Diagnosis

Objectives: This cross-sectional study explored personality traits of individuals receiving treatment in a private clinic for an eating disorder (ED) compared to those receiving treatment for a dual diagnosis (DD; defined as an addiction to illegal drugs and/or alcohol along with a mental illness, in this case an ED). The aims of this study were to: (a) assess the personality profiles and differentiating traits between the ED and DD groups, (b) analyze differences in personality traits of restrictive ED versus bingeing ED profiles, and lastly (c) compare the individuals Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) results to their personality clusters as per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 5^th edition (DSM-5). Methods: The TCI-R is a self-report questionnaire consisting of seven scales, each with their own subscales, which provide a fuller understanding of each temperament and character trait evaluated. This questionnaire was given to patients (n = 67) receiving treatment at a private institute specialized in eating disorders in Barcelona, Spain and the surrounding areas, along with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11). These subsequent questionnaires were given as they are often found to be comorbidities of ED. Results: The ED group (n = 41), regarding the TCI-R scales, showed higher scores in harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD), persistence (P), cooperativeness (C) and self-directedness (SD). Whereas, the DD (n = 26) group, showed higher scores in novelty seeking (NS) and self-transcendence (ST). Also, there was a significant positive correlation between the DD group and the extravagance (NS3) subscale of novelty seeking across models. When comparing the two ED groups, the restrictive profile (RP) to the bingeing profile (BP), there were significant negative correlations in the TCI-R subscales of dependence (RD4) and perfectionism (P4) whereas there were positive correlations in the TCI-R subscale of responsibility (SD1). Conclusions: These results support previous studies and help to appraise differences in personality traits between specific groups in a clinical setting.

Body Dissatisfaction, Restrictive, and Bulimic Behaviours Among Young Women: A Polish-Japanese Comparison

The growing number of women, who are characterized by restrictive and bulimic behaviours towards their own body is observed especially in countries influenced by Westernalization. However, there is a lack of cross-cultural studies in this area. The main aim of the present study was to examine the psychological and socio-cultural risk factors for eating disorders in Polish and Japanese women. A cross-sectional research study was conducted among 18- to 29-year old Polish (n = 89) and Japanese (n = 97) women. The variables were measured using the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale SATAQ-3, and the Eating Disorders Inventory EDI-3. The descriptive and comparative statistics, Spearman's rho, and the stepwise regression analysis were used. The global internalization of socio-cultural standards of body image proved to be a significant predictor of Body Dissatisfaction among Polish and Japanese women. The main analysis showed a significant relation between the Drive for Thinness and Interoceptive Deficits in the group of Japanese women, as well as a correlation between Drive for Thinness and Asceticism in the group of Polish women. The obtained results could improve the prevention aimed the dysfunctional eating behaviours. However, the cultural nuances need to be considered in understanding the risk factors for eating disorders.