Unpredictability, body awareness, and eating in the absence of hunger: A cognitive schemas approach

The current research examined whether cognitive schemas that emerge in the context of early life stress predict psychological and behavioral outcomes that increase obesity risk. Three studies tested this hypothesis, predicting that having an unpredictability schema-which is a mindset characterized by the belief that the world and the people in it are unpredictable and unreliable-would predict low body awareness and eating in the absence of hunger.

Self-report measures of early life environment, unpredictability schema, body awareness, and eating habits were used in Studies 1-3. Blood glucose and an eating task were used as objective measures of energy need and energy intake in Study 3.

In Study 1, low childhood socioeconomic status (SES), parenting inconsistency, and poor childhood neighborhood quality predicted having an unpredictability schema, which predicted lower body awareness. In Study 2, participants with an unpredictability schema were found to have lower body awareness, less mindful eating, and more self-reported eating in the absence of hunger. In Study 3, the pattern of results from Studies 1 and 2 were conceptually replicated using a laboratory eating task. Participants with an unpredictability schema had lower body awareness, which predicted eating in the absence of hunger.

These results suggest that having an unpredictability schema may be an important predictor of low body awareness and eating in the absence of hunger. Although eating in the absence of hunger may have historically promoted survival in circumstances marked by unpredictability, they may contribute to obesity risk in contemporary food-rich environments. (PsycINFO Database Record