The effect of acceptance and commitment therapy-based intervention on emotional eating behavior in adults

The aim of this study is to develop an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based intervention, to examine its effect on emotional eating behavior in adults and to compare it with the control group. In this context, the study was carried out in an experimental design with a randomized control group with pre-test, post-test and 1-month follow-up measurements. Demographic Information Form, Emotional Eating Scale, Eating Attitude Test, Acceptance Action Questionnaire, Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale, SF-12 Health Survey and Mindful Eating Scale was used as data collection tools. SPSS 22.0 package program was used for data analysis. Applications were evaluated within the framework of the inclusion and exclusion criteria determined within the scope of the research. Then, ACT (experimental group) and control groups were formed homogeneously through simple random sampling method. The study was completed with 45 adult female participants, 24 of whom were experimental. In the study, six sessions were conducted with the participants in the ACT group; whereas, a 1-day ACT workshop was held for the control group after taking the posttests simultaneously with the experimental group. The results of the research confirmed that there was a significant decrease in emotional eating scores of the participants in the experimental group. It was also observed that this decrease continued during the follow-up measurement period. The findings were discussed based on the literature and suggestions were made for further research. It is thought that the study will contribute to both the fieldofemotional eating andACT intervention studies. Keywords:Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotional Eating, Online Intervention Studies