Hunger sensitivity: How high interoceptive awareness of hunger impacts eating behaviors and body mass index in those over 40
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Kunstle, Jenna A
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Kunstle, Jenna A. 2024. Hunger sensitivity: How high interoceptive awareness of hunger impacts eating behaviors and body mass index in those over 40. Master's thesis, Harvard University Division of Continuing Education.Abstract
The present study examined the concept of hunger sensitivity as theorized in astudy conducted by Walker et al. (2015a), who determined that hunger sensitivity could
be assessed using their newly developed Hunger Sensitivity Scale. This present study
continued their work and used the Hunger Sensitivity Scale to determine what effects
high hunger sensitivity had on individual BMI and maladaptive eating patterns in a
sample of participants between the ages of 40-65. Participants completed a Qualtrics
survey that included demographic data, the Hunger Sensitivity Scale and the ThreeFactor Eating Questionnaire R18V2. For the first research question, a two-tailed Pearson
correlation and an independent samples t-test were used to determine whether or not high
hunger sensitivity was related to higher BMI in adults within the sample age group.
Results showed no relationship between the two variables. For the second research
question, a two-tailed Pearson correlation was used to determine whether or not high
hunger sensitivity was related to higher scores on the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire
R18V2. This measure is used to quantitatively score maladaptive eating patterns that are divided up into three different domains (uncontrolled eating, cognitive restraint,
emotional eating) as well as a total score. The results of this analysis showed that high
hunger sensitivity had a small correlation with the TFEQ-R18V2 total score and the
uncontrolled eating and emotional eating domains. There was no correlation found for the
cognitive restraint domain. Test scores were calculated using Microsoft Excel and all
statistical analysis was completed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Discussion of the study results include comparison to the results of the Walker et al. (2015a) study, as well as
discussion of ANOVA and multiple linear regression results for demographic data. Study
limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
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