Attitude toward breakfast mediates the associations of wake time and appetite for breakfast with frequency of eating breakfast

Purpose We investigated associations among attitude toward breakfast, appetite for breakfast, wake time, personality traits, self-esteem, and frequency of eating breakfast in university students and proposed a model of factors affecting the frequency of eating breakfast. Methods The participants, 555 Japanese university students (177 men, 378 women), completed a questionnaire about their height and weight, living with family, wake time, frequency of eating breakfast, appetite for breakfast, attitude toward breakfast, personality traits, and self-esteem. Appetite for breakfast was evaluated with a four-point Likert-type scale. Attitude toward breakfast was assessed with a 13-item questionnaire using a five-point Likert-type scale; responses to the items were summed, and divided by the number of items to produce a score. Results Multiple linear regression analysis showed that frequency of eating breakfast was positively associated with appetite for breakfast and attitude toward breakfast, and inversely associated with wake time. Wake time was inversely associated with attitude toward breakfast, and appetite for breakfast was positively associated with attitude toward breakfast. Structural equation modeling showed that the structured model based on the multiple regression analysis was a good fit for both men (chi-square value to the degrees of freedom [ χ 2 / df ] = 1.096, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.023) and women ( χ 2 / df = 1.510, RMSEA = 0.037). Conclusions These results suggest that wake time and appetite for breakfast are directly associated with frequency of eating breakfast. Attitude toward breakfast mediates the indirect association between frequency of eating breakfast and both wake time and appetite for breakfast. Level of evidence V, cross-sectional descriptive study.