Investigation of the Relationship Between Food Craving, Cognitive Flexibility and Social Appearance Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood

In this study, it was aimed to reveal the predictive power of demographic characteristics, cognitive flexibility and social appearance anxiety of individuals in emerging adulthood on preoccupation with the thought of eating and loss of control over eating, which are the sub-dimensions of food craving. The design of the research was structured according to the relational screening model. The study group of the research consists of 551 participants, 395 (71.7%) women and 156 (28.3%) men. “Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait Short Form”, “Cognitive Flexibility Inventory”, “Social Appearance Anxiety Scale” and “Personal Information Form” were used to collect research data. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between food craving, cognitive flexibility and social appearance anxiety. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of food craving of individuals in emerging adulthood. Considering the dimension of preoccupation with the thought of eating, while the alternatives, one of the sub-dimensions of cognitive flexibility, do not make a specific contribution to the model, the control sub-dimension makes a unique contribution to the model. When the sub-dimension of loss of control over eating is considered, alternatives from the sub-dimensions of cognitive flexibility make a low-level significant contribution to the model, while the sub-dimension of control makes a unique contribution to the model. The research results showed that the sub-dimensions of cognitive flexibility is an important predictor of preoccupation with the thought of eating and loss of control over eating, and similarly, social appearance anxiety is an important predictor of all sub-dimensions of food craving.