| Abstract: | Food choice plays a vital role in people’s lives and well‐being, and this topic has received more research attention in recent years. The aims of the present research were to identify subgroups of participants who shared similar profiles of multiple motives for food choices, and examine differences across motive types on the well‐being of young and middle‐aged Chinese adults. Participants were 627 Chinese adults aged 18–58 years who completed questionnaire measures. The results of Latent Profile Analysis showed that based on the configurations among different motives for food choice, there were five profiles of food choice motives, corresponding to five types of Chinese adult consumers: unconcerned, mood oriented, weight control oriented, food enthusiast and health oriented. The food enthusiast consumers were more likely to include young adults with high‐income level and educational level, while the unconcerned consumers had a larger share of middle‐aged adults with low income. Results of ANOVA suggested that the types of food choice motives significantly predicted individuals’ well‐being. Specifically, the food enthusiast group had the highest level of well‐being, while the unconcerned group had the lowest level of well‐being. The other three groups had moderate levels of well‐being. The current study is the first to explore the potential influence of food choice motives on well‐being using a person‐centred approach, and the results have practical implications for public health authorities in developing effective interventions, for food companies in tailoring marketing campaigns and for individuals in optimizing food choices. |
