Eating styles and psychological well-being: A latent profile analysis of college women

Dieting is common among young adult women, yet it may be associated with problematic psychological outcomes. The current study aimed to profile styles of eating among undergraduate women ( n = 478, average age = 19.3, 50.8% Hispanic/Latina/x), and to explore the extent to which dieting attitudes were associated with psychological well-being. A latent profile analysis of self-reported intuitive eating, binge eating, and dietary restraint measures indicated a four-profile model provided a reasonable fit to the data. These profiles differed significantly in BMI, and psychological measures of well-being, body appreciation, impulsivity, and self-efficacy. Profiles characterized by greater endorsement of restraint were associated with depressed mood and binge eating. These results suggest an intuitive approach to eating is related to greater well-being amongst an ethnically diverse sample of college women, and that individuals who restrict their eating differ from those who do not across various psychological constructs, regardless of whether they explicitly identify as “dieters.”