Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 39, Issue 3, September 2006, Pages 448-451
Journal of Adolescent Health

Adolescent health brief
The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Snacking: Individual Differences Explained by External, Restrained and Emotional Eating

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.12.020Get rights and content

Abstract

In a nationwide sample of 10,087 Dutch adolescents aged 11–16 years (M = 13.0, SD = .8), on average, 25% of the respondents watched more than three hours of television per day. Lowest levels of television viewing (TVV) were found in Dutch adolescents as compared to other ethnic groups, and in higher compared to lower educational levels. Snacking was negatively associated with physical activity and positively associated with TVV. For both boys and girls, the positive association between TVV and snacking was stronger in adolescents who scored high on external and (only for boys) emotional eating, whereas restrained eating attenuated this association.

Section snippets

Methods

A nationwide sample of 10,087 Dutch undergraduates aged 11–16 years (M = 13.0, SD = .8) were recruited through their schools; the total response of participating schools was 91.9%. Details of the selection procedure are described elsewhere [19].

The number of sweet and/or savory snacks respondents usually ate per day measured snacking. This item was derived from a larger food intake questionnaire and had been used in an adolescent sample before. Television viewing on a regular school day

Results

Table 1 shows TVV per group of subjects; differences were found between age, educational level and ethnic groups, but not for gender (Table 1).

TVV was negatively associated with physical activity (r = −.06 for boys, and r = −.10 for girls, p < .001) and positively associated with snacking (r = .25 for boys, and r = .21 for girls, p < .001).

Adolescents who scored high on external eating ate more snacks than those who scored low on external eating (t(4810) = −15.95 for boys, and t(5042) = −19.54

Discussion

This study provides tentative evidence that external, restrained and emotional eating might play a role in the association between TVV and snacking, confirming our hypothesis that high external and emotional eaters had stronger associations between TVV and snacking. Interestingly, the interaction between TVV, emotional eating and snacking was only significant for boys; these sex differences need further investigation. Possibly, in certain people both heavy TVV and emotional eating might be the

Acknowledgment

Rutger Engels was supported by a fellowship of the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank Roy Otten and Monique van de Ven for their work during the preparation of this study and during the data collection, and Hedwig Lahnstein for text revisions.

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