BODY APPRECIATION AND ENGAGING IN OLD TALK ARE ASSOCIATED WITH MIDLIFE WOMEN’S EATING ATTITUDES

摘要

Women at midlife are not free from body image concerns, however appreciating one’s body may be associated with healthier behaviors, such as healthy eating patterns, into older adulthood. Additionally, aging women’s social interactions likely reinforce body attitudes, and these interactions often focus on age-related aspects of the body (e.g., old talk). Old talk has been associated with lower body satisfaction and higher disordered eating, but we do not know whether it is associated with more positive constructs, such as body appreciation and intuitive eating. To assess potential independent and mediational effects of old talk on body appreciation and intuitive eating, this study utilized online survey data collection methods to examine body attitudes, old talk, and eating attitudes among an international sample of 295 women ages 40–65. Regression analyses controlling for age and BMI indicated that higher body appreciation was associated with less frequent old talk (β=-.43, p<.001) and greater intuitive eating (β=.29, p<.001), and less frequent old talk was associated with greater intuituve eating (β=-.14, p<.01). Old talk mediated both the association between body appreciation and intuitive eating (CI: .0208, .0974), and the association between functional appreciation and intuitive eating (CI: .0213, .1064), such that the association between body appreciation and intuitive eating was reduced when old talk was included in the model. Similar results were observed for functional appreciation. Improving women’s body appreciation and targeting social interactions that are focused on body image and age may be an important area for improving women’s eating behavior later in life.