Effects of Perceived Stress on Problematic Eating: Three Parallel Moderated Mediation Models

Background: Stress adversely affects health behaviors, particularly problematic eating. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship remain underexplored. This study seeks to examine the mediating role of irrational health beliefs and the moderating role of negative coping styles in the associations of perceived stress with three types of problematic eating-restrained, emotional, and external eating. Methods: A total of 929 emerging adults (57.8% females; mean age = 21.50 ± 2.36 years, age range = 17-35 years) participated in an online survey to provide their self-reported data. Results: Perceived stress was positively associated with restrained, emotional, and external eating. Irrational health beliefs partially mediated these associations, with indirect effects of 0.24, 0.40, and 0.07, respectively. Negative coping styles only moderated the associations of perceived stress with restrained eating (β = 0.05, p = 0.047) and emotional eating (β = 0.08, p = 0.001), but not external eating (β = 0.01, p = 0.859). Conclusions: Our findings suggest the effect of cognitive factors such as irrational health beliefs and negative coping styles on stress-induced eating. Interventions aimed at cognitively restructuring irrational health beliefs and raising attention on health, as well as promoting adaptive stress-coping strategies that alleviate emotional distress without compromising other aspects of health, are therefore essential.