•  
  •  
 

Primary Author Status

Faculty

Abstract

The study aimed to measure the differing levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for healthy eating behaviors in men and women. Through social media outreach, a sample of 57 participants (n=57), aged 18-69, living across the United States, primarily in the midwestern area, completed an online survey. The Motivation for Healthy Eating Scale (MHES) assessed different subgroups of internal and external motivation for healthy eating. Five of the six subgroups were used in the online survey sent to participants (intrinsic motivation, integrated regulation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, and external regulation). An independent samples t-test was performed to assess the differing MHES intrinsic and extrinsic motivation results between the male and female participants. Results indicated no statistical significance between gender in four of the five MHES subgroups: intrinsic motivation (p = .163), integrated regulation (p = .866), identified regulation (p = .309), and introjected regulation (p = .151). Extrinsic regulation was the only subgroup with significant results (p = .035). A paired samples t-test was also performed to evaluate the MHES results within men and women separately. Both tests indicated no statistical significance between the differing types of motivation in men and women (p = .122, p = .140, respectively). The present study suggests that there are mostly no significant motivational differences for healthy eating between and within men and women. However, the study does suggest that there is significance in differing levels of external motivation between men and women for healthy eating. Further studies conducted on this subject should consider focusing on a young adult population in order to account for social media internal and external influences on healthy eating motivation.

Download

Share

COinS