Motivations for Eating Decisions of College Students

Students at Lake Forest College do many things per day—eating is one of them. Commonly, food choices are influenced by other people, emotions, and by personal goals. How do students make food choices, and are choices indicative of disordered eating patterns or of healthy relationships with food? The purpose of this study was to understand how college students make decisions about what to eat and what motivates the food choices they make. My work suggests students were generally not influenced by others, emotions can influence food choice, and goals had the biggest influence on the food choices students made