The role of sensation seeking and motivations for eating in female and male adolescents who binge eat.

OBJECTIVES Although different personality traits have been associated with the onset and maintenance of binge eating, the role of sensation seeking is still not well documented. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of sensation seeking and motivations for eating in male and female adolescents who binge eat. METHODS 336 adolescents (196 boys and 140 girls, mean age 17.48) completed a survey composed of Binge Eating Scale, Motivation for Eating Scale, and Brief Sensation Seeking Scale. RESULTS Our results showed that for female adolescents, binge eating was significantly correlated with age, body mass index (BMI), Environmental and Emotional Eating. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that BMI was a significant positive predictor of binge eating; Emotional and Physical Eating accounted for 34% of the variance. For male adolescents, binge eating was significantly correlated with age, BMI, Boredom susceptibility, Experience seeking, environmental, Social and Emotional Eating. The most significant variables that contribute to binge symptoms, were age and BMI (that accounted for 16% of the variance), Experience seeking and Boredom susceptibility (11%) and emotional eating (18%). CONCLUSIONS Our results provided support for emotional motivations as significant triggers for binge eating behavior in both male and female adolescents. Although two sensation seeking dimensions were significant predictors of binge eating in males, sensation seeking was not associated to binge eating in the female subsample.