Eating Habits as Determinant of Self-Perceived Stress of Adolescents

There is well known scientific acceptance of a relationship between psychological stress and eating behaviours. This study gives insights from the Croatian health study of school children and adolescence with focus on eating habits and perceived stress. The aims of the study were to investigate eating habits, psychical activity and some aspects of health appraisals of adolescents as potential predictors of perceived stress. The sample consisted of 482 healthy adolescents (243 girls ; 16 to 19), who participated in project in 2013/2014. Adolescents’ appraisals of food frequency consumption, physical activity habits, frequency of health difficulties within last six months, individual’s overall perception of their health (WHOQOL-bref) and perceived stress scale (PSS-10) were used. Subjective perception of stress of adolescents is slightly higher than average for this age for boys and even higher for girls. The selected set of predictors explained 35% variance of girl's perceived stress and 23.5% variance of boy's perceived stress. Eating habits explained significant amount of perceived stress (8.9% girls, 4.4% boys) but structure of predictors differs for girls and boys. As stress is higher, frequency of daily meals is smaller in boys and frequency of healthy meals within last seven days smaller in girls. Frequency of unhealthy meals within last seven days was not predictor of perceived stress. The greatest variance was explained by health related appraisals for both, boys and girls. Since selected set of predictors explained small amount of variance of boy’s perceived stress, additional variables and predictors of stress need to be regarded further. These findings support hypothesis that eating habits could contribute to stress of adolescents. Consequently, awareness related to changing eating habits under the stress could be of lifelong interest and should be taught during school years. Identifying predictors of stress in adolescents could promote development of prevention and treatment plans for supporting adaptive lifestyle of adolescents, especially those under the stress.