Food Addiction and Emotional Eating Behaviors Co-Occurring with Problematic Smartphone Use in Adolescents?

Abstract

Addiction in adolescence is increasing and has a significant impact on physical and mental health. Notably, addictions can be comorbid and affect each other. Despite the recent growing interest in food addiction (FA) and problematic smartphone use (PSU), few studies have investigated their association in adolescents. We investigated the relationship between FA and PSU in adolescents and the effects of eating behaviors. A total of 209 adolescents (44.5% male; mean age = 12.86 ± 0.7 years) participated in the current school-based community study. We found a positive correlation between the dimensional Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children 2.0 (dYFAS-C2.0) and the Smartphone Overdependence Scale after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. The high-risk PSU group accounted for 17.2% of participants. Furthermore, this group showed 2.3 times higher dYFAS-C2.0 scores than the general group. Emotional overeating and satiety responsiveness were correlated with PSU. A comprehensive evaluation of addiction symptoms is needed for proper intervention, especially in adolescents with symptoms of abnormal eating behaviors.

Keywords: adolescents; eating behavior; food addiction; problematic smartphone use.

Figure 1

Correlation between food addiction and problematic smartphone use.

Figure 2

Differences of food addiction by problematic smartphone use severity. Abbreviation: dYFAS_C2.0 scale: dimensional Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children 2.0. *: p-value < 0.05. In the case of high-risk smartphone addiction, food addiction also increased. and the difference was significant for each group when adjusting for age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and body mass index (BMI) percentile (F = 13.419, p < 0.001).