College
College of Health Professions
Date of Last Revision
2023-05-05 21:28:28
Major
Nutrition/Dietetics
Honors Course
7760 499-001
Number of Credits
2
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2022
Abstract
Intuitive Eating (IE) is a food mindset focusing on honoring hunger and fullness, while rejecting the diet mentality. Research demonstrates a clear link between IE and health outcomes across many populations, including college students. Despite a growing body of literature, we still know very little about what complexities food insecurity may present for individuals trying to adopt IE behaviors. This study builds off prior research to investigate IE behaviors in food insecure and food secure students through a Qualtrics survey utilizing the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Six-Item Short Form to determine food security status. The data for this study was collected at a public, 4-year comprehensive university in the Midwest and included 47 respondents, 70% of whom identified some level of food insecurity. The mean IES-2 score for this sample was 3.23 (SD = 0.44), which aligns with previous research in this population. When disaggregated by food security status this data indicated, however, that for those with very low food security (answering positively on 3+ USDA screening questions), the ability to practice IE may be impacted by food insecurity with a mean IES-2 score of 2.91 in that subgroup. Further research will be needed to broaden the sample and assess other conditions effecting food security such as housing security, race, and gender identity.
Research Sponsor
Christin Seher PhD, RDN, LD, The University of Akron
First Reader
Alison Doehring M.S.Ed.
Second Reader
Leann Schaeffer MA, RD, LD
Honors Faculty Advisor
Christin Seher PhD, RDN, LD
Recommended Citation
Stocker, Morgan and Seher, Christin PhD, RDN, LD, "Intuitive Eating Behaviors among a Sample of Food Secure and Food Insecure College Students" (2022). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1499.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1499