Journal article
Emotional dysregulation moderates the relation between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents
The International journal of eating disorders, Vol.57(7), pp.1609-1615
04/11/2024
DOI: 10.1002/eat.24217
PMCID: PMC11262967
PMID: 38600832
Abstract
Adolescent children of US service members (i.e., military-dependent youth) face unique stressors that increase risk for various forms of disinhibited eating, including emotional eating. Difficulties with adaptively responding to stress and aversive emotions may play an important role in emotional eating. This study examined emotion dysregulation as a potential moderator of the association between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents.
Participants were military-dependent youth (N = 163, 57.7% female, M
= 14.5 ± 1.6, M
= 1.9 ± 0.4) at risk for adult binge-eating disorder and high weight enrolled in a randomized controlled prevention trial. Prior to intervention, participants completed questionnaires assessing perceived stress and emotional eating. Parents completed a questionnaire assessing their adolescent's emotion dysregulation. Moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and adjusted for theoretically relevant sociodemographic covariates.
The interaction between adolescent perceived stress and emotion dysregulation (parent-reported about the adolescent) in relation to adolescent emotional eating was found to be significant, such that higher emotion dysregulation magnified the association between perceived stress and emotional eating (p = .010). Examination of simple slopes indicated that associations between perceived stress and emotional eating were strongest for youth with above-average emotion dysregulation, and non-significant for youth with average or below-average emotion dysregulation.
Findings suggest that greater emotion dysregulation may increase risk for emotional eating in response to stress among military-dependent youth at risk for binge-eating disorder or high weight. Improving emotion regulation skills may be a useful target for eating disorder prevention among youth who are at risk for emotional eating.
Prior research has shown that adolescent military dependents are at increased risk for eating disorders and high weight. The current study found that emotion dysregulation moderated the relationship between perceived stress and emotional eating among military-dependent youth. There may be clinical utility in intervening on emotion regulation for adolescent dependents at particular risk for emotional eating and subsequent eating disorders.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Emotional dysregulation moderates the relation between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents
- Creators
- Holly Spinner - The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USAKatherine A Thompson - The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USAViviana Bauman - The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USAJason M Lavender - Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesIsabel Thorstad - The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USARuby Schrag - The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USATracy Sbrocco - United States UniversityNatasha A Schvey - National Institutes of HealthBrian Ford - United States UniversityCaitlin Ford - Alexander T. Augusta Military Medical CenterDenise E Wilfley - Washington University in St. LouisSarah Jorgensen - University of IowaDavid A Klein - United States UniversityJeffrey Quinlan - University of IowaJack A Yanovski - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentMark Haigney - Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesMarian Tanofsky-Kraff - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The International journal of eating disorders, Vol.57(7), pp.1609-1615
- DOI
- 10.1002/eat.24217
- PMID
- 38600832
- PMCID
- PMC11262967
- eISSN
- 1098-108X
- Grant note
- 1R01DK104115-01 / NIDDK NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 04/11/2024
- Academic Unit
- Family and Community Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984584907202771
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