Does being kind to yourself affect your relationship with food?

Project Title: Does being kind to yourself affect your relationship with food? The relationship between self-compassion, intuitive eating and disordered eating among emerging adults in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Lead Researcher: Carly Raquel Owen

Background and Aims: Although international research has identified emerging adults as an at-risk group for disordered eating, research with this cohort in Aotearoa is scant. Moreover, research on disordered eating has focused on individual deficits rather than strengths and adaptive behaviours. Self-compassion and intuitive eating have been implicated as individual factors related to decreased disordered eating and increased flourishing. In line with the conference theme, we sought to investigate how these strengths-focused variables might work together to reduce disordered eating among emerging adults in Aotearoa. We predicted that intuitive eating would mediate the relationship between self-compassion and disordered eating, such that higher levels of self-compassion would predict less disordered eating through increased intuitive eating.

Methods: Emerging adults (N=170) in Aotearoa completed self-report measures of self-compassion (SCS), intuitive eating (IES-2) and disordered eating (EAT-26) online. Mediation analyses used Hayes’ SPSS PROCESS macro, entering self-compassion as the predictor, disordered eating as the outcome variable, and intuitive eating as the mediator.

Results: Intuitive eating was a significant partial mediator in the relationship between self-compassion and disordered eating, such that those with higher levels of self-compassion showed more engagement in intuitive eating practices, which in turn was related to less disordered eating.

Implications: This study contributes to a small but growing literature investigating strengths-based factors that may be beneficial in encouraging adaptive eating behaviours among those with disordered eating. Results provide initial evidence for self-compassion and intuitive eating as potentially useful constructs to consider in the prevention and treatment of subclinical disordered eating among emerging adults in Aotearoa.

To read Carly’s full thesis, click here.