Relation of eating behavior and family health and personality traits in adolescents / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the relation of eating behavior to family health and personality traits in adolescents, and to provide empirical support for personality based prediction of adolescents susceptibility to poor eating behavior and family intervention.@*Methods@#A total of 563 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old from nuclear families, who were selected from "Survey of Chinese Family Health Index(2021)". A general characteristic questionnaire, Short form of Family Health Scale, 10 item Big Five Inventory, and Short form of Sakata Eating Behavior Scale were used to collect information. The relationships of eating behavior to family health and personality traits were analyzed by structural equation modeling.@*Results@#Group comparison indicated that there was a significant difference in scores of the big five personalities and eating behaviors among adolescents from diverse family health statuses( P <0.01). Additionally, there were significant correlations among family health, personality traits, and eating behavior( P <0.01). Structural equation modeling showed that family health resources (-0.34), conscientiousness (-0.17), extraversion ( 0.14 ), agreeableness (-0.13) directly affected eating behavior( P <0.05). Meanwhile, family external social support associated with eating behavior by affecting extraversion (0.22), and family health resources associated with eating behavior by affecting agreeableness(0.12)( P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#Not only could family health directly affect eating behavior, but it could indirectly associate with eating behavior by affecting personality traits among adolescents in nuclear families. The role of the family in improving adolescent poor eating behavior should be emphasized.