Objective: This study investigated body dissatisfaction, neuroticism, and sex as potential predictors of calorie-tracking app usage amongst undergraduate college students. Participants: College students (N = 491) were recruited from a large northeastern university in October 2015. Methods: Participants completed an online survey asking about their sex, body dissatisfaction, neuroticism, and use of apps that track calories. Results: Analyses revealed that female sex and body dissatisfaction-but not neuroticism-were direct predictors of calorie-tracking app usage. Analyses also provided support for a causal sequence wherein neuroticism and body dissatisfaction mediate, in serial, the relationship between female sex and calorie-tracking app usage. Conclusions: The results from this study suggest that female college students are more likely to use calorie-tracking apps-a phenomenon which may be attributable to their higher levels of neuroticism and subsequent increased body dissatisfaction.
Keywords: Calorie-tracking apps; body dissatisfaction; college students; neuroticism.