Understanding Sensory Sensitivity and Emotional Eating in Adolescents

Using the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (A/ASP), investigators found that sensory processing predicts emotional eating in adolescents.

In a cross-sectional sample of 99 adolescents (51 obese, 48 normal-weight), the team administered the A/ASP and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and collected blood and morning saliva for hormonal assays. The analytic plan reported A/ASP quadrant scores and DEBQ subscales, measured plasma leptin and ghrelin and salivary cortisol, and used regression models adjusted for sex, BMI, and physical activity to test associations with emotional eating.

The analysis shows a moderate positive correlation between sensory sensitivity and emotional eating; this association remained statistically significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons and was present in both obese and normal-weight adolescents. Sensory sensitivity and emotional eating emerged as the principal behavioral association in the cohort, and group-level sensory profiles were comparable across weight strata, suggesting the link is not limited to higher-BMI adolescents.

By contrast, peripheral biomarkers did not explain restrained, emotional, or external eating after multivariable adjustment. Hierarchical regression added no explanatory variance from leptin, ghrelin, and cortisol once sex, BMI, and activity were included; median hormone values were similar between groups, and biomarker–behavior associations were null in adjusted models. In this sample, sensory measures were the more robust correlate of emotional eating than single-time-point peripheral hormones.

These results suggest several immediately actionable steps for behavioral phenotyping and counseling: screening for elevated sensory sensitivity using the A/ASP to identify adolescents at risk for emotional eating, asking about sensory triggers such as overload or heightened taste/textural sensitivity, and prioritizing modifying the sensory context of meals as part of counseling.

Key takeaways:

• Sensory sensitivity correlates moderately with emotional eating across adolescent weight strata.
• Elevated sensory sensitivity can be identified with the A/ASP to target behavioral assessment.
• Sensory screening can be integrated into routine behavioral evaluation.