Boredom proneness, interoception, and emotional eating

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Emotional eating contributes to weight gain and hinders weight loss efforts.
• Boredom is a potential, yet understudied, predictor of problematic eating behaviors.
• Individual differences in interoception may influence the relationship between boredom and emotional eating.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if boredom proneness predicts emotional eating, beyond mood states.
• To examine if interoceptive ability moderates the association between boredom proneness and emotional eating.
• To identify potential targets for preventing and treating emotional eating.

Main Methods:

• Two large adult samples (N=826) completed validated self-report measures.
• Multiple linear regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.
• Measures included boredom proneness, emotional eating, affect, and interoception.

Main Results:

• Boredom proneness significantly predicted emotional eating in both samples, controlling for positive and negative affect.
• Interoception did not moderate the boredom proneness-emotional eating link.
• Poorer interoceptive ability was an independent predictor of emotional eating.

Conclusions:

• Boredom proneness is a significant factor in emotional eating, irrespective of general mood.
• Interoceptive ability is an independent predictor of emotional eating.
• Both boredom proneness and interoceptive ability may be valuable targets for interventions aimed at reducing emotional eating.