Looking cool or attaining self-rule. Different motives for autonomy and their effects on unhealthy snack purchase.
Being integral to adolescent health, autonomy presumably also is related to adolescent unhealthy snacking. We distinguish two differently motivated forms of autonomy: agentic autonomy, driven by a motivation to self-regulate, and self-presentational autonomy, driven by motives of image cultivation. The present study aimed to investigate the differential associations of these two types of motivation with unhealthy snack purchase in a prospective study among 105 adolescents. Results confirmed that agentic autonomy correlated with less unhealthy snack purchase, while self-presentational autonomy correlated with increased unhealthy snack purchase in males but not in females. This supports the hypothesis that autonomy is related to adolescent unhealthy eating, but can do so in different ways.
Stok
F Marijn
FM
Utrecht University, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, The Netherlands. F.M.Stok@uu.nl
De Ridder
Denise T D
DT
Adriaanse
Marieke A
MA
De Wit
John B F
JB
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires