Preferences for coaching strategies in a personalized virtual coach for emotional eaters: an explorative study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Emotional eating is recognized as a potential contributor to weight gain. Emotional eaters often hide their problems because of feelings of shame about their behavior, making it challenging to provide them with the necessary support. The introduction of a virtual coach might offer a potential solution in assisting them. To find out whether emotional eaters are receptive to online personalized coaching, we presented emotional eaters with two essential proto-typical problem situations for emotional eaters: "experiencing cravings" and "after giving in to cravings," and asked them whether they preferred one of the three coaching strategies presented: Validating, Focus-on-Change and Dialectical.

Methods

An experimental vignette study (2 × 3 design) was carried out. The

SUBMITTER: Dol A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10687361 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature