Is decision-making ability related to food choice and facets of eating behaviour in adolescents?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
Published on: June 5, 2016
Rosemarie Macchi1, Laura MacKew1, Caroline Davis1
1Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Purpose:
To test the prediction that poor decision-making would predict poor eating-related behaviours, which in turn would relate to elevated body mass index (BMI) percentile.
Methods:
Associations among decision-making ability, eating behaviours, and BMI percentile were examined in a sample of 311 healthy male and female adolescents, aged 14-18 years. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed relationships.
Results:
The predicted model was a good fit to the data and all paths between latent and indicator variables were significant. Impulsive responding significantly predicted poor food choice and overeating. No significant relationships emerged between eating-related variables and BMI percentile.
Conclusions:
Findings from this study extend the existing research in adults and offer a more comprehensive understanding of factors that may contribute to eating behaviours and weight status in teenagers.
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