The Psychological Determinants of Emotional and External Eating Behavior in a University Student Sample from Turkey*

Abstract

Psychological factors and adverse childhood events at an early age have been poorly investigated in relation to risky eating behavior and obesity. The importance of this relationship grows as these behaviors are becoming public health problems. The main objective of the present study was to examine the effects of interrelated psychological factors such as childhood negative life events, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and impulsivity on eating behaviors in a university student sample in Turkey. A total of 414 undergraduate students (60.4% women) in Turkey, completed the Turkish versions of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to assess emotional eating and external eating and the CDC-Kaiser Permanent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11 (BSI-11). Structural equation models (SEM) were used to evaluate whether depressive/anxiety symptoms could be a mediator between impulsivity and emotional eating/external eating. Childhood adverse events were both weakly correlated with eating behavior and impulsivity measures (r =.18,r =.275, p