Women’s regulation styles for eating behaviors and outcomes: The mediating role of approach and avoidance food planning

The purpose of this articlewas to examine the role played by different orientations in planning for eating behaviors as mediators of the relationship between regulation styles and eating behaviors. In Study 1, a new scale was developed to assess approach food planning and avoidance food planning.Results fromconfirmatory analyses (N = 241) supported the two-factor structure of the scale. In Study 2 (N = 202), in agreement with past research on the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation for the regulation of eating behaviors, we found that approach food planning partiallymediated the effects of autonomous regulation for eating behaviors on healthy eating behaviors, while avoidance food planning partially mediated the effects of controlled regulation for eating behaviors on dysfunctional eating behaviors. Implications of these results for self-determination theory and for promoting healthy eating behaviors are discussed.