Relations between negative affect, coping, and emotional eating
Sonja T P Spoor1, Marrie H J Bekker, Tatjana Van Strien
1Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA. sonjas@ori.org
Appetite
|December 6, 2006
Summary
Emotional eating is linked to using emotion-oriented coping and avoidance distraction strategies. These coping mechanisms are associated with emotional eating in both eating-disordered and healthy women.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Eating Disorders
Background:
- Emotional eating is a complex behavior often linked to psychological distress.
- Understanding the role of coping strategies in emotional eating is crucial for developing effective interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between negative affect, coping strategies (emotion-oriented and avoidance distraction), and emotional eating.
- To determine if emotion-oriented coping and avoidance distraction predict emotional eating, with or without considering negative affect.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study involving 125 women with eating disorders and 132 community women.
- Utilized the Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (PANAS) for affect assessment.
- Employed the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for coping and emotional eating measures.
Main Results:
- Both emotion-oriented coping and avoidance distraction were significantly associated with emotional eating.
- These associations remained significant even after controlling for negative affect levels.
- Negative affect alone did not uniquely predict emotional eating beyond the influence of the coping strategies.
Conclusions:
- Emotional eating is associated with a reliance on emotion-oriented coping and avoidance distraction behaviors.
- These findings apply to both women with eating disorders and relatively healthy women.
- Interventions targeting maladaptive coping strategies may be beneficial for reducing emotional eating.
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