Emotional Eating, Emotional Regulation, and Personality of College Students

Description

Page: 554-557

Tripta Nair and Shiju Joseph (Department of Psychology, Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala)

Emotional eating is characterized by food consumption in response to emotional states rather than physiological hunger cues. This behavior is often linked to various psychological factors, including an individual’s ability to regulate emotions and personality traits. The present study aims to explore the relationship between emotional eating, emotional regulation, and the Big Five personality traits among college students in Kerala, India. Data were collected from 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students using the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Big Five Inventory-2 Short Form (BFI-2-S). Independent t-tests and Pearson’s correlation were conducted. The findings revealed significant gender differences in the dimensions of anger and depression of emotional eating, where males scored higher than females. A significant difference was found between undergraduate and postgraduate students in their emotional eating. However, no significant difference was observed concerning the socioeconomic status of the students. Emotional eating was positively correlated with negative emotionality and negatively correlated with open-mindedness. The results suggest that cultural aspects of the construct of emotional eating merit in-depth exploration and research. Intervention strategies in emotional eating also should consider personality factors, especially negative emotionality.