Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether reward related eating drive could be an important psychological mechanism of food addiction and to identify personality vulnerability factors and cognitive expectancy factors that could influence reward related eating drive. To this end, a self-report questionnaire study was conducted with 533 college students to test whether reward sensitivity, which was hypothesized to be a personality vulnerability factor for food addiction, could sequentially mediate reward related eating drive through cognitive expectancy factors of eating expectancies and food expectancies to influence food addiction. Results showed that the relationship between reward sensitivity and food addiction was fully mediated by reward-related eating drive. In addition, the sequential mediation effect of reward sensitivity on food addiction through the sequential mediation of eating expectancies and reward-related eating drive was confirmed. The path from reward sensitivity to food addiction through sequential mediation of positive expectancy of highly processed foods and reward-related eating drive was significant only for the female sample. These results suggest that reward-related eating drive might be a key psychological mechanism of food addiction and that reward related eating drive is influenced by personality vulnerability factors such as reward sensitivity and cognitive expectancy factors such as eating expectancies and food expectancies. Finally, implications, limitations, and future research directions of this study are discussed.