Pleasure, pursuit of health or negotiation of identity? Personality correlates of food choice motives among young and middle-aged women

The clustering of four food choice motives (health weighs concern, pleasure and ideological reasons) and the relationship between personality and the food choice motives were analysed among young and middle-aged women in two studies. The personality variables included personal strivings, magical bel iefs about food, awareness and internalization of thinness pressures, appea rance and weight dissatisfaction, depression, self-esteem and symptoms of e ating disorders. Study 1 was done with 171 young and middle-aged women. In Study 2, with data provided by 118 senior high-school girls, one cluster of girls who did not regard any of the food choice motives as important was f ound, otherwise the food choice clusters were fairly similar in both studie s. They were labelled as health fosterers, gourmets, ideological eaters, he alth dieters and distressed dieters. Only the second dieter group, distress ed dieters, showed low psychological well-being and symptoms of disordered eating. The results also indicated that ideological food choice motives (i. e. expression of one's identify via food) were best predicted by vegetarian ism, magical beliefs about food and health, and personal strivings for ecol ogical welfare and for understanding self and the world. (C) 1999 Academic Press.