Behavior
Exploring the mediating effect of life satisfaction on psychological distress and eating behavior association in students from economically disadvantaged regions. Kliver Antonio Marin* Kliver Marin Barbara Saldanha Lima Lorrane Cristine Conceição da Silva Jose Guilherme dos Santos Neto Luiz Fernando Oliveira Barbosa Izabela de Melo Valadares Silva Liz Mendes de Almeida Kaike da Costa Rodrigues Rhavenna Thais Silva Oliveira Shirley Cunha Feuerstein Augusto Cesar Ferreira De Moraes Marcus Vinicius Nascimento-Ferreira
Abstract
Aim: To investigate the mediating effect of life satisfaction on the association between psychological distress and eating behavior in students from economically disadvantaged regions. Methods: We analyzed self-reported data from 485 students (65.6% aged ≤20 years; 70.4% female; 71.6% non-White; 43.6% with monthly household income below a minimum wage) from two Brazilian cities (Gini indices ≤0.56). We consider psychological distress (somatization, depression, and anxiety symptoms) as the exposure and eating behaviors (emotional, external, and restrained eating) as the outcome. Life satisfaction was assessed both as an exposure and a mediator. Data analysis included multilevel linear regression models with random effects, canonical correlation analysis to create synthetic variables for key exposures and outcomes, and structural equation modeling to evaluate the indirect effects of life satisfaction.
Results: Life satisfaction was negatively associated with emotional eating (β = -0.021; 95% CI: -0.035, -0.007). Conversely, psychological distress was positively associated with eating behaviors, including emotional (β = 0.018; 95% CI: 0.011, 0.023), external (β = 0.010; 95% CI: 0.006, 0.013), and restrained eating (β = 0.010; 95% CI: 0.004, 0.016). A pair of canonical variables—psychological distress (‘u1’) and eating behaviors (‘v1’)—was statistically significant (r1 = 0.41; Wilks’s λ, p < 0.0001) associated, explaining 16.5% of the variance. The total effect of u1 on v1 was significant (β = 0.372; 95% CI: 0.285, 0.458), with both indirect (β = 0.048; 95% CI: 0.010, 0.086) and direct (β = 0.323; 95% CI: 0.230, 0.417) effects contributing to this relationship. Mediation by life satisfaction accounted for 13.9% of the total effect.
Conclusion: Life satisfaction mediates the association between psychological distress and eating behaviors in students from economically disadvantaged areas.
Keywords: Life Satisfaction, psychological distress, eating behavior, students.