title: Successful restrained eating and trait impulsiveness.
abstract: Restrained eaters with high scores on the Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale (PSRS) are more successful than low scorers in regulating their food intake. According to the theory of temptation-elicited goal activation (Fishbach, Friedman, & Kruglanski, 2003), they have become successful because, due to earlier repeated instances of successful self-control, they formed an associative link between temptations and thoughts of dieting. It is unclear, however, why they should have been more successful in earlier attempts at self-control than their unsuccessful counterparts. We examined whether trait impulsiveness plays a role by investigating the associations between dietary restraint, trait impulsiveness, and PSRS. Results showed that the interaction between dietary restraint and impulsiveness predicted dieting success: A lower level of impulsiveness was associated with greater dieting success among restrained eaters. These results suggest that restrained eaters who are less impulsive are more likely to become successful restrained eaters as identified with the PSRS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Science, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: g.m.van.koningsbruggen@vu.nl.
authors.forename: Guido M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: van Koningsbruggen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stroebe
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aarts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D004038:Diet, Reducing / Q000523:psychology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult