The relationship between physical education teachers' physical activity and emotional eating and eating behavior

Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is of great importance for both individual health and social well-being. Physical education teachers, as a requirement of their profession, are individuals who place physical activity at the center of their lives and also serve as role models for their students. Therefore, their nutritional attitudes, eating behaviors, and emotional eating tendencies indirectly affect not only their own health but also the lifestyles of the students they teach. In this framework, this study aimed to examine the relationship between physical education teachers' physical activity levels and emotional eating and eating behavior. As a matter of fact, within the scope of the research, it will be attempted to reveal whether there are differences in the levels of emotional eating and eating behaviors according to teachers' physical activity levels. In addition, by evaluating the possible relationships between emotional eating and eating behavior, scientific data will be obtained regarding the connection of these variables with the healthy lifestyles of physical education teachers. The research was designed as a quantitative research with a descriptive and correlational design. 272 Physical Education Teachers (Female: 79 (%29); Male: 193 (%71); mean age 39.4±9.51 years) working in Konya province participated in the study voluntarily. Personal Information Form, Emotional Eating Scale (EES), Eating Behavior Scale (EBS) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) were used as data collection tools. In the statistical analysis of the data, skewness and kurtosis values were determined firstly by the Skewnew-Kurtasis test and then by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Mean (X), standard deviation (SD) and percentage (%) values were used in the table presentations of descriptive statistics of demographic information. In the comparison of scale sub-dimension scores with demographic information, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Independent t test, the relationship between physical activity levels and demographic information was determined by Chi Square test, and the relationship between scale sub-dimensions and demographic information was determined by Pearson Correlation analysis. The significance level was set at 0.05, and SPSS version 25.0 was used to analyze all data. The findings indicate that the participating physical education teachers' total DES score, well below 75, indicates that they exhibit very little emotional eating. Furthermore, the fact that their total DES subscale scores were also below the mean suggests that they exhibit conscious eating behavior. In addition to these positive attitudes, it was also observed that they can exhibit significant levels of overeating in emotional situations (p<0.05). Furthermore, as the participating physical education teachers got older, they became significantly more careful about food selectivity and engaged in more controlled food consumption (p<0.05). Men reported feeling fuller at a higher rate than women, while women also consumed more food under emotional conditions (p<0.05). While there was no significant difference between the genders in the physical activity levels of the participating physical education teachers (p>0.05), it was observed that activity levels decreased with increasing age, and consequently, BMI levels increased significantly with increasing age (p<0.05). Furthermore, it was observed that high levels of activity were higher in married but childless participants (p<0.05). No significant relationship was found between the participants' physical activity levels and the "no emotional eating subscale." Furthermore, no significant relationship was found between "Physical Activity Level" and the "no eating behavior subscale." These results clearly demonstrate that the emotional states of physical education teachers, who engage in physical activity consciously and mindfully as a result of the basic training they receive and based on the fundamental elements of their profession, do not affect their unconscious eating, and this unaffected state is not reflected in their eating behaviors and does not cause any negative consequences.