College Students' Dietary and Health Behaviors related to Their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Preferences

Kim, Byung Sook; Lee, Young Eun

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate college students' dietary and health behaviors in relation to their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality preferences. Dietary and health behaviors were surveyed for 444 college students who performed the MBTI personality test. Only 6.1% of the subjects regularly had three meals a day, while 27.1% ate breakfast every day. Fifty-six point nine percent of the students took less than 15 minutes to eat a meal and had the habit of eating fast. The number of food groups they ate was, on average, 2.74 and was eaten mainly at dinner. This showed that college students did not eat a large variety of foods. Eighty-two percent of the subjects drank alcoholic beverages, 21.4% smoked, and 69.3% exercised. In addition, 73.9% of them were not satisfied with their body image, but they were not eager to try weight control. There were not many significant differences between Extraversion (E)-Introversion (I), Sensing (S)-iNtuition (N), and Thinking (T)-Feeling (F) in their dietary and heath behaviors, although some gender differences existed. Significantly better dietary and health behaviors were shown in subjects preferring Judging (J) rather than Perceiving (P). There behaviors included eating breakfast, regularly eating three meals a day, smoking less, exercising more and having a lower tendency to night-eating. The personality preference of J-P could be useful index for nutritional education and counseling or behavior modification programs for obese people.