Background: Adolescents are highly exposed to digital food-related content, including mukbang videos, yet the psychological consequences of such exposure remain insufficiently understood. This study aimed to examine the association between mukbang viewing and anxiety among adolescents and to investigate the mediating roles of high-caffeine beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages intake. Methods: Data from 51,850 adolescents were drawn from the 2022 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Parallel mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS Model 4 with 5000 bootstrap samples to assess whether the frequency of high-caffeine beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages consumption mediated the association between mukbang viewing and anxiety. Analyses were adjusted for academic record, household economic level, grade, and gender. Results: Mukbang viewing was positively associated with anxiety (p < 0.001). Watching mukbang significantly predicted higher high-caffeine beverages (B = 0.0363, p < 0.001) and sugar-sweetened beverages (B = 0.0663, p < 0.001). In the mediation model, both high-caffeine beverages intake (B = 0.4064, p < 0.001) and sugar-sweetened beverages intake (B = 0.2457, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with increased anxiety. The total effect of mukbang viewing on anxiety was significant (B = 0.1053), with both a direct effect (B = 0.0743) and a significant indirect effect through the two mediators (B = 0.0311). Bootstrapped confidence intervals confirmed significant indirect pathways via high-caffeine beverages (B = 0.0148, 95% CI 0.0120, 0.0175) and sugar-sweetened beverages (B = 0.0163, 95% CI 0.0136, 0.0192). Conclusions: Mukbang viewing is associated with higher anxiety among adolescents, and this relationship is partially mediated by increased high-caffeine beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages intake. These findings suggest that dietary behaviors represent important behavioral pathways linking digital food content exposure to adolescent mental health.
Eungyeong Kim (Thu,) studied this question.