No abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between stress and unhealthy eating among undergraduate students, considering the moderation effects of BMI, eating style, and nationality. A total of 748 Italian and French students completed self-report measures of academic stress, emotional eating, restrained eating, BMI, and unhealthy eating intake. Results showed that academic stress increased unhealthy food consumption in Italian students, whereas it reduced junk food consumption in French students. Negative emotional eating and BMI moderated, respectively, the impact of academic stress on sweet food intake and snacking. Finally, no clear support was found for the moderation role of restrained eating.

Self‐objectification is a pervasive phenomenon, related to specific socio‐cultural context, that can lead to many psychological and interpersonal consequences. With the present study, we investigated the correlates of self‐objectification in young Italian women analyzing both its traditional antecedents and its consequences for self‐presentation on social network sites (SNS). A total of 676 Italian university female students completed a self‐reported questionnaire on self‐objectification, internalization of a thin‐ideal and related influences, internalized sexism, self‐esteem, SNS use, selfie‐posting on SNS and selfies’ manipulation. Results indicated that media and peers, but not family pressures, were positively associated with thin‐ideal internalization, which, in turn, was positively associated with self‐objectification. Moreover, both sexism and self‐esteem were significantly associated with self‐objectification. Regarding self‐objectification consequences for SNS usage, results revealed that self‐objectification was positively associated with time spent on SNS, frequency of selfie‐posting and selfie‐editing. It was concluded that objectification theory can be extended into the context of image‐related behaviors on SNS. Results suggest that young women with low self‐esteem, traditional attitudes toward gender roles and high levels of internalization of thin‐ideal may report high levels of self‐objectification which, in turn, may be related to specific self‐promotion behaviors on social media. The limitations of the present study, particularly in terms of sampling and implications for future research on selfie‐behavior are discussed.

Recent studies have pointed out the effect of personality traits on athletes’ performance and success; however, fewer analyses have focused the relation among these features and specific athletic behaviors, skills, and strategies to enhance performance. To fill this void, the present paper provides evidence on what personality traits mostly affect athletes’ mental skills and, in turn, their effect on the performance of a sample of elite swimmers. The main findings were obtained by exploiting a component-based structural equation modeling which allows to analyze the relationships among some psychological constructs, measuring personality traits and mental skills, and a construct measuring sports performance. The partial least squares path modeling was employed, as it is the most recognized method among the component-based approaches. The introduced method simultaneously encompasses latent and emergent variables. Rather than focusing only on objective behaviors or game/race outcomes, such an approach evaluates variables not directly observable related to sport performance, such as cognition and affect, considering measurement error and measurement invariance, as well as the validity and reliability of the obtained latent constructs. The obtained results could be an asset to design strategies and interventions both for coaches and swimmers establishing an innovative use of statistical methods for maximizing athletes’ performance and well-being.

No abstract