Associations of affective states and cognitive functions with eating behavior in healthy young Korean adults

Altered eating behaviors have been identified in various psychiatric disorders; however, the psychological and cognitive correlates of eating-behavior traits in healthy young adults remain unclear. This cross-sectional study investigated whether affective states and cognitive functions are associated with eating behaviors in young Korean adults, hypothesizing that both affective and cognitive factors would be linked to maladaptive eating tendencies. One hundred healthy adults (50 men and 50 women, average age 21.88 ± 0.19 years) were recruited from March 2021 to June 2022. Eating-behavior traits were assessed using the Adult Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (AEBQ). Affective states were evaluated using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, and Big Five Inventory. Visual working memory, reward sensitivity, and salivary biomarkers, including cortisol and serotonin, were also assessed. AEBQ-based eating-behavior traits were more consistently associated with affective states than with cognitive-function indices or salivary biomarkers. Total AEBQ scores were positively associated with total DASS scores. Contrary to the initial hypothesis regarding cognitive functions, reward sensitivity and visual working memory showed no significant associations with AEBQ subscales. Salivary serotonin and cortisol were also not significantly associated with AEBQ subscales. These findings suggest that AEBQ-based eating-behavior traits in healthy young Korean adults may be more closely related to affective states than to cognitive-function indices or salivary biomarkers. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal or predictive.