Emotion suppression, coping strategies, dietary patterns, and BMI

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Nutrition Science

Background:

• Emotion suppression (ES) is linked to unhealthy coping mechanisms like emotional eating (EE).
• Physical activity (PA) offers a healthy alternative coping strategy.
• Understanding these relationships is crucial for addressing obesity-related health disparities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if ES influences Body Mass Index (BMI) via EE and dietary patterns.
• To determine if PA moderates the association between ES, EE, and BMI.
• To explore differences in these patterns across race/ethnicity and gender.

Main Methods:

• 1674 adult participants from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating study.
• Utilized questionnaires for emotion regulation, eating behaviors, and physical activity.
• Included validated dietary assessments and demographic/anthropometric data.

Main Results:

• A serial mediation pathway showed ES associated with higher BMI through increased EE and decreased fruit/vegetable intake.
• Hedonic snack food intake did not significantly mediate the ES-BMI link.
• Greater PA attenuated the associations of ES and EE with dietary intake and BMI, with variations observed across demographic groups.

Conclusions:

• Emotion suppression contributes to higher BMI via emotional eating and lower fruit/vegetable consumption.
• Physical activity plays a moderating role in these associations.
• Coping strategy differences may explain disparities in obesity and related health behaviors.