Table 5.
Executive functioning difficulties associated with food addiction symptoms and disordered eating attitudes
| Parent-reported executive functioning difficulties in daily behaviors on BRIEF | Performance-based tasks of executive functions | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inhibit | Shift | Emotional control | Initiate | Working memory | Plan/ organize |
Organization of Materials | Monitor | Stroop task time-based interference | Stroop task accuracy-based interference | Stroop task percent interference | Cancellation task combined efficiency score | |
| Yale Food Addiction Scale | ||||||||||||
| Eating for longer duration and higher amounts than intended | 0.20 | 0.22 | 0.37 a | 0.26 | 0.34 a | 0.25 | 0.29 | 0.20 | 0.22 | 0.26 | 0.24 | − 0.19 |
| Repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop or decrease consuming food | − 0.26 | − 0.06 | 0.00 | 0.07 | − 0.17 | − 0.21 | − 0.08 | − 0.18 | − 0.16 | − 0.28 | − 0.23 | 0.10 |
| Spending too much time to reach food or eating-related activities | − 0.08 | 0.21 | 0.32 | 0.20 | − 0.04 | 0.09 | 0.19 | − 0.00 | − 0.26 | 0.10 | − 0.12 | 0.03 |
| Avoidance from important social, functional, and interpersonal activities | − 0.11 | 0.03 | 0.06 | − 0.08 | 0.06 | 0.04 | 0.09 | 0.10 | − 0.01 | − 0.06 | − 0.06 | 0.07 |
| Continuing to eat despite knowing the negative consequences | 0.26 | 0.43 a | 0.38 a | 0.41 a | 0.32 | 0.38 a | 0.51 b | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.20 | 0.12 | − 0.16 |
| Tolerance to the same amount of food and consuming increasing amounts | 0.11 | − 0.13 | − 0.17 | − 0.09 | − 0.07 | − 0.05 | − 0.06 | 0.14 | 0.23 | − 0.05 | 0.30 | − 0.11 |
| Anxiety and other physical withdrawal symptoms | − 0.01 | − 0.06 | 0.24 | − 0.05 | 0.15 | 0.04 | − 0.06 | − 0.09 | − 0.28 | − 0.04 | − 0.24 | 0.24 |
| Distress or functional impairment due to food addiction symptoms | 0.04 | 0.17 | 0.38 a | 0.16 | 0.25 | 0.13 | 0.21 | 0.07 | 0.04 | 0.35 a | 0.12 | 0.16 |
| Total symptom score | 0.09 | 0.21 | 0.38 a | 0.19 | 0.21 | 0.18 | 0.30 | 0.13 | − 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.06 |
| Diagnostic evaluation threshold based on YFAS | − 0.05 | 0.15 | 0.42 a | 0.17 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.22 | − 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.37 a | 0.07 | 0.11 |
| Eating attitudes test-40 | ||||||||||||
| Anxiety about gaining weight | − 0.24 | − 0.03 | 0.02 | − 0.09 | 0.03 | − 0.07 | − 0.07 | − 0.07 | − 0.06 | 0.23 | − 0.06 | 0.08 |
| Dieting behaviors | − 0.39 a | − 0.26 | − 0.15 | − 0.32 | − 0.42 a | − 0.33 | − 0.19 | − 0.24 | − 0.15 | 0.20 | − 0.04 | 0.27 |
| Social pressure | − 0.17 | − 0.01 | 0.20 | − 0.14 | − 0.13 | − 0.22 | − 0.07 | − 0.21 | − 0.09 | − 0.01 | − 0.18 | 0.01 |
| Thin body preoccupation | − 0.18 | 0.00 | 0.08 | 0.11 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.04 | − 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.14 | 0.08 | 0.10 |
| Total score | − 0.34 a | − 0.20 | 0.12 | − 0.17 | − 0.18 | − 0.19 | − 0.11 | − 0.31 | − 0.24 | 0.15 | − 0.19 | 0.18 |
| Increased risk of eating disorder | − 0.32 | -29 | − 0.09 | − 0.17 | − 0.28 | − 0.18 | − 0.11 | − 0.32 | − 0.21 | 0.29 | − 0.18 | 0.17 |
a Spearman’s rho is significant at p < .05; b Spearman’s rho is significant at p < .01