This study aims to identify the relationships between eating habits and psychological adjustment and health perception, and to analyze potential mediating role of healthy and unhealthy foods in the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and the psychological constructs and health perception. The sample was selected through stratified random cluster sampling and was composed of 788 university students. The participants responded to a MedDiet adherence screener and food consumption inventory to assess the eating habits, instruments measuring self-esteem, life satisfaction, curiosity and sense of coherence to assess the psychological adjustment, and single item measuring perceived health. The results revealed 41.9% of the participants had a high consumption of vegetables and 85.1% a low consumption of energy drinks, while 29.9% showed a high adherence to the MedDiet which was positively associated to each psychological variable and healthy foods and negatively with unhealthy foods. In conclusion, a higher adherence to the MedDiet, and the consumption of fruits and vegetables is related to higher psychological adjustment and health perception. However, the relationships between MedDiet and the psychological variables and health perception were fully or partially explained because of the consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods.

El uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) en edades tempranas es cada vez más generalizado. El objetivo de este trabajo fue aportar evidencias de validez y de fiabilidad de la adaptación al español de la Escala de Uso Problemático de Medios con Pantallas (Problematic Media Use Measure) y su versión corta (Problematic Media Use Measure Short Form). Ambas evalúan el uso problemático de los medios con pantalla en menores de 4 a 11 años, con la información proporcionada por sus progenitores. La evidencia de validez se basó en el análisis de su estructura interna y su relación con otras variables, y la estimación de su fiabilidad se basó en el modelo Omega de McDonald. La muestra consistió en 230 progenitores de alumnos de dos centros de educación infantil y primaria de la provincia de Huelva (España), con una edad media de 39.58 años (DE = 5.70). Los progenitores aportaron datos de 230 menores, con edades entre los 4 y los 11 años (M = 8.65; DT = 2.12). De estos, 111 eran niños (48.3%) y 116 niñas (50.4%), con tres participantes omitiendo el género. Los resultados, obtenidos mediante un Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio, muestran que ambas escalas se ajustan a un modelo unidimensional y cuentan con altos valores de confiabilidad (valor Omega de McDonald de .96 para la escala completa y de .90 para la reducida). Se encontró que los dispositivos más utilizados fueron TV, DVD y vídeos, y que su uso se correlacionó positiva y significativamente con la preocupación de los padres. Ambas escalas en su versión española se muestran como instrumentos útiles para evaluar el uso problemático de los medios con pantallas a partir del reporte de los padres

Background: This study aimed to analyse the psychometric properties of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (CEI-II) to provide evidence of validity for its use in research on health promotion and the quality of life of young Spanish university students. Method: A sample of 807 participants (75.09% female) aged 18–26 years (M = 20.68; SD = 2.13) completed the CEI-II and health and quality of life measures questionnaire. Results: A unidimensional structure was confirmed, but the original two-dimensional structure also showed an adequate fit. The measures obtained from the CEI-II were gender- and age-invariant, which exhibited adequate internal consistency for both the full scale and subscales, and showed a statistically significant relationship with life satisfaction, sense of coherence, and psychological distress. Conclusions: The CEI-II can be used as unidimensional, which is recommended, but also as a two-dimensional measure. Both structures provide reliable, valid, and invariant measures across gender and age of exploratory behaviours in Spanish university students. Furthermore, the results confirm the association between exploratory behaviours and greater health management.