The Mediating Role of Duration and Intensity of Physical Activity in Increasing Eating Awareness - Adolescent and Parental Participation Study

Q: What does the study examine about mindful eating and physical activity?

It investigates whether the duration and intensity of physical activity among adolescents aged 15–17 affect nutritional and eating awareness.

Q: How was the study conducted and what tools were used?

The study is cross-sectional and used the Personal Information Form, IPAQ-SF, and MEQ-30 to collect data from adolescents and their parents.

Q: What were the key findings comparing active and inactive groups?

Scores for vigorous and moderate active groups did not differ on MEQ-30 overall and eating-related subscales, while the inactive group differed, showing the highest emotional eating level.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Liam

Mindful eating is defined as moment-by-moment awareness during food consumption, yet few studies examine eating awareness in contexts involving physical activity. This cross-sectional study tested whether adolescents’ physical activity duration and intensity influence nutritional awareness. A total of 1117 adolescents aged 15–17 and one parent for each participant completed structured measures including IPAQ-SF and MEQ-30. Results showed no differences among active groups on overall and subscale eating outcomes, but inactives differed, with the highest emotional eating levels, supporting targeted intervention relevance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background: unhealthy eating and adolescent inactivity

Obesity risks and environmental determinants

Mindfulness and eating awareness in interventions

The Mediating Role of Duration and Intensity of Physical Activity in Increasing Eating Awareness: Adolescent and Parental Participation Study Mustafa AKIL Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Usak, Turkey [Corresponding author: mustafa.akil@usak.edu.tr](Corresponding author: mustafa.akil@usak.edu.tr) Abstract Mindful eating is a condition in which a person becomes aware of the moment while eating. Very few studies have investigated eating awareness in environments where physical activity is performed. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the duration and intensity of physical activity in adolescents aged 15–17 affects their nutritional awareness.1117 adolescents aged 15–17 and one parent of each were involved in the study. It is a crosssectional study. Personal information form, International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ-30) were used as data collection tools. There were no group differences between scores of vigorous actives and moderate actives from MEQ-30 total and subsamples in eating control, eating discipline and mindful eating, but there was difference between both groups and inactives group(p < 0.05) . Inactives group had the highest level in emotional eating; there was group difference between vigorous actives and moderate actives (p< 0.05) . The results suggest that there are useful items for exploring more about mindful eating, because the differences between mindful eating total and its subsamples and physical activity are important. A better understanding of mindful eating can lead to the development of more effective intervention strategies to address the risk of overweight and obesity in adolescents Keywords: nutrition, physical activity, mindful eating, obesity. 1. Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that four main factors that lead to cardiovascular deaths are unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, tobacco, alcohol use (WHO, 2014). These unhealthy and changeable behaviors usually occur during adolescence (Croezenet al., 2009). Adolescents, at the age of 15-17, skip breakfast and their physical activity declines (Duarte et al., 2020). For this reason, the period between 15 and 17 should be considered as a critical time to promote healthy lifestyles (Patton et al., 2016) and lifestyle deconstruction and eating habits should be established during this period (Das et al., 2017; Gümüş &Yardımcı, 2020). Nutritional behavior, which is a physiological requirement in childhood, begins to turn into a behavior that can be learned and consciously controlled in adolescence. Sudden increase in burning energy and rapid development play a role in determining the eating habits of adolescents (Uzdilet al.,2017). Usually, adolescents consume fast food and the number of meals increases during this period. Rapid development leads them to eat frequently and profusely. In addition, food consumption with high sugar and fat content is common nutritional errors in this period (Lassietal., 2017; Pereira et al., 2021). These risky behaviors negatively affect the social, emotional, cognitive, and physiological development processes of adolescents (Mairs & Nicholls, 2016). Given that an increase in calorie intake is the basis of obesity, it is extremely important to understand correct factors that influence eating decisions (Nuryet al., 2021). Being overweight or obese in adolescence is associated with lifelong negative health outcomes (Pazin et al., 2020). Excessive consumption of food in adolescence will probably lead to lifelong overweight and obesity (Evensen et al., 2016; Evensen et al., 2017). In addition, obesity in this period is related with the early onset of chronic diseases (Parket al., 2012) and has negative psychosocial consequences (Wang et al., 2019). Many environmental factors can affect eating, such as hunger, the presence of food, the feeling of eating with others, emotional eating, stressful eating,

FAQs

What does the study examine about mindful eating and physical activity?

It investigates whether the duration and intensity of physical activity among adolescents aged 15–17 affect nutritional and eating awareness.

How was the study conducted and what tools were used?

The study is cross-sectional and used the Personal Information Form, IPAQ-SF, and MEQ-30 to collect data from adolescents and their parents.

What were the key findings comparing active and inactive groups?

Scores for vigorous and moderate active groups did not differ on MEQ-30 overall and eating-related subscales, while the inactive group differed, showing the highest emotional eating level.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Liam