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Emotional Eating After Manipulating Emotion Regulation: A Laboratory Study in Adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2021

Taaike Debeuf Open the ORCID record for Taaike Debeuf [Opens in a new window] ,
Sandra Verbeken ,
Brenda Volkaert ,
Nathalie Michels ,
Jens Blechert  and
Caroline Braet
Taaike Debeuf*
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Sandra Verbeken
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Brenda Volkaert
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Nathalie Michels
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Jens Blechert
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Caroline Braet
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
*
*Corresponding author: Taaike Debeuf, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Email: taaike.debeuf@ugent.be
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Abstract

It is often assumed that emotional eating occurs when an individual is unable to utilise emotion regulation (ER) to cope with stress. In this stress exposure study, we explored whether manipulating participants’ ER strategies (rumination or self-compassion) influenced their stress-related affect and food consumption. Fifty-three adolescents (Mage = 14.72) were included; half of the participants were instructed to use rumination as their ER strategy, and half were instructed to use self-compassion. We could not demonstrate that the ER strategies differently affected stress-related affect. However, we did find that increased Happiness following ER self-compassion predicted reduced High-Fat Sweet food consumption, whereas increased Happiness following ER rumination instead led to greater High-Fat Sweet food consumption. In participants who ruminated, food consumption reduced feelings of Frustration, but not Boredom or Happiness. Post-hoc exploration revealed that only ER self-compassion, not ER rumination, normalised levels of stress-related affect. The results highlight the need for more research into the complex relationship between ER strategies, affect states, and food types in their effect on emotional eating.

Keywords

emotion regulationemotional eatingstressadolescentsobesity
Type
Standard Paper
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 65 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy

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