Developing a causal model of food cravings based on cognitive self-awareness mediated by positive behavioral emotion regulation in obese students

obesity in adolescents has become a serious public health concern that will lead to many risk factors; therefore, this study was performed to study a causal model of food cravings based on cognitive self-awareness mediated by positive behavioral emotion regulation in obese students in Mashhad.

The method of this research was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of the present study was all middle and high school male students in Mashhad during the academic year 2021-2022 and 320 subjects were selected by cluster sampling. The Food Cravings Questionnaire of Cepeda-Benito et al., the Metacognitive Beliefs Questionnaire of Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, and the Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire of Garnefski and kraaj were used to collect data. The collected data were also analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis and structural equations by Lisrel 8.8 software.

The results showed that the causal model of the relationship between cognitive self-awareness, behavioral emotion regulation, and food cravings in students with obesity was confirmed based on various fit indices (P<0.05), Overall, cognitive self-awareness positive behavioral emotion regulation predicted 53% of the variance food cravings in obese students.

Therefore, according to the results, it is suggested that the Education and Welfare Organization implement cognitive skills and emotion regulation training by counselors and psychologists in planning and life skills classes for students.