The mediating role of hedonic pleasure in the relationship between chronotype and eating behaviors in healthy young adults: A perspective on the wanting–liking balance

Abstract Emerging evidence suggests that individual chronotypes may influence eating behavior through different dimensions of hedonic processing. This study aimed to examine the mediating role of anticipatory (“wanting”) and consummatory (“liking”) pleasure in the relationship between morningness chronotype and emotional eating behavior within a framework informed by the wanting-liking balance model. A cross-sectional design was used with 236 medical students aged 18–30 years. Participants completed the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) to determine chronotype, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) with consummatory (TEPS-CPF) and anticipatory (TEPS-CAPF) subscales, and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), which assesses restrained (RE), emotional (EE), and external eating (ExE). Based on MEQ scores, 236 students (66.5% female; median age = 21 years) were classified as evening (24.6%), morning (17.8%), or neither type (57.6%). Chronotype groups differed only in daily smoking, which was more common among evening types (p = .003). SEM showed direct effects of MEQ on DEBQ-RE (β = .31, p < .01) and DEBQ-ExE (β = –.21, p < .01), while TEPS-CAPF partially mediated these associations (DEBQ-RE: β = –.05, p = .026; DEBQ-ExE: β = .08, p = .002). These findings highlight the complex, multidimensional role of hedonic pleasure in shaping eating behaviors and suggest that chronotype-related differences in reward processing may contribute to individual variability in eating regulation. The study supports a transdiagnostic perspective of hedonic functioning and highlights the need to assess both the “wanting” and “liking” dimensions in the context of eating behavior and chronobiology.