Eating styles with some feeling: Latent profiles of appetitive and emotion-related impulsivity traits

Research focused on adult eating styles would benefit from investigating whether latent profiles of appetitive and emotion-related impulsivity traits differ in eating disorder (ED) and general psychopathology.

This study identified and validated latent eating profiles based on appetitive and emotion-related impulsivity traits.

We conducted a cross-sectional study in a non-clinical sample of 232 adults who completed an online battery of questionnaires assessing appetitive traits, emotion-related impulsivity, ED symptomatology, anxiety, depression, stress, and other clinical and background characteristics. We fitted latent profile analysis (LPA) models with 2-8 classes on the dataset without multivariate outliers (N = 223). After retaining the best profile solution, we compared latent classes using ANCOVAs and Tukey post-hoc tests, controlling for age.

The best-fitting model revealed four distinct profiles: Resilient Eaters (23.30%), with the lowest food responsiveness and emotion-related impulsivity; Moderate Eaters (46.27%), showing higher food avoidance and behavioral emotion-related impulsivity; Hedonic Eaters (14.03%), characterized by the highest enjoyment of food and lower emotion-related impulsivity; and Impulsive Eaters (16.40%), with the highest food responsiveness and emotion-related impulsivity. Resilient Eaters exhibited the most adaptive profile, with higher general and ED-specific flexibility and lower general ED psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and stress, compared to Moderate and Impulsive Eaters. Moderate and Hedonic Eaters showed intermediate levels of ED symptomatology and psychological distress, whereas Impulsive Eaters displayed the most maladaptive profile.

Classifying eating profiles based on appetitive and impulsive traits has the potential to advance screening for complex forms of ED psychopathology.