The relationship between object relations, emotion regulation difficulties and emotional eating

In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between object relations, difficulty in emotion regulation, and emotional eating. The sample of the research consists of 400 students (252 males; 148 females) studying in the undergraduate programs in Istanbul Gelişim University. In this research, "Sociodemographic Data Form" was used to record and evaluate the characteristics of the sample. "Bell Object Relations and Reality Assessment Scale (BORTTI)" was used to evaluate the participants in terms of object relations and its sub-dimensions, and the "Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)" was used to evaluate the level of difficulty experienced by the participants in the field of emotion regulation. The Emotional Eating Scale (EES) was used to measure emotional eating levels. According to the findings of our study, females had higher EES (total) (p<0.05) scores. In addition, females had higher scores in DERS "Goals" subdimension (p<0,01). There were no statistically significant differences between genders in other subdimensions of DERS. Male paticipants had higher mean scores in "Distortion of Reality" sub-dimension of the BORRTI scale (p<0.05.). There were no statistically significant differences across genders in other subscales of BORRTI. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between DERS (total) and "EES (total)" scores (p<0.01; r = 0.460). When the relationships between the scores obtained from BORRTI and EES (total) were evaluated; a statistically significant positive relationship has been found between the BORRTI scale "Alienation" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.291), "Insecure Attachment" (p<0.01 ; r = 0,224), "Egocentrism" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.189), "Social Disability" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.233), "Distortion of Reality" (p<0.05 ; r = 0.124), "Uncertainty of Perceptions" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.315), and "Dreaming Hallucination" (p<0.05 ; r = 0.106) subdimension scores and "EES (total)" scores. A statistically significant positive relationship has been detected between the BORRTI scale "Alienation" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.542), "Insecure Attachment" (p<0,01 ; r = 0,253), "Egocentrism" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.188), "Social Disability" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.407), "Distortion of Reality" (p <0.01 ; r = 0.242), "Uncertainty of Perceptions" (p<0.01 ; r = 0.671), and "Dlucent Hallucination" (p<0.01; r = 0.203) sub-dimensions scores and DERS (total) scores. Our study supports the hyphothesis that there might be a relationship between object relations, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotional eating.