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We examined emotional eating among undergraduates in China. The Emotional Eating Scale (EES; Arnow, Kenardy, & Agras, 1995) was translated into Chinese and adapted to assess intensity and frequency of eating in response to different emotions. A factor analysis generated 4 subscales of emotions for which eating is a response: anxiety, depression, anger/hostility, and positive emotion. Internal consistency reliability for the subscales was established (Cronbach's alpha = .817, .852, .832, and .861, respectively). Moderate correlations were found between all subscales, eating pathology, and impulsive control. Positive emotion and negative emotion were found to play an important role in eating behavior. As there was a strong relationship between emotional eaters, especially negative emotional eaters, and eating psychopathology, these individuals may be at high risk of developing an eating disorder and/ or becoming obese.
Keywords: emotional eating, positive emotional eaters, negative emotional eaters, impulse control, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility.
It is generally acknowledged that human eating behavior is affected by, and associated with, emotion (Pieters et al., 2006). The relationship between eating behavior and emotion has been studied by various researchers who have concluded that individuals, especially those receiving treatment for obesity and eating disorders, tend to respond to negative emotions by eating more (Grilo, Masheb, & Wilson, 2001; Peterson, Miller, Crow, Thuras, & Mitchell, 2005), and have a greater tendency to consume junk food (Lyman, 1982). However, Macht, Roth, and Ellgring (2002) found that positive emotions can also affect eating behavior. Macht and Simons (2000) examined the effects of anger, fear, sadness, and joy on a number of eating characteristics in a study in which participants reported experiencing an increase in impulsive eating when they were angry, and an increase in hedonic eating when they were joyful. Canetti, Bachar, and Berry (2002) attributed these reactions to the fact that the emotions of anger and joy are, in general, experienced more often than sadness and fear in daily life. Similarly, Patel and Schlundt (2001) found that meals eaten when people were in a positive or negative mood were significantly larger than meals eaten when they were in a neutral mood and that a positive mood had a stronger impact on food intake than a negative mood.
The concept of emotional eating originates from work conducted by...