The relationship between the difficulty of emotion regulation and eating addiction in university students

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between eating addiction and emotion regulation difficulties in university students. A total of 214 students studying psychology at Haliç University were included in the study. Emotion Regulatory Difficulty Scale and Yale Eating Addiction Scale were used in the participants with socio-demographic form. Descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square and ANOVA were applied to the research data in SPSS 23.00. The findings were evaluated at 95% confidence interval and 5% significance level. According to the findings obtained from the study, the rate of eating addiction among students is 18,7%. In the comparison between eating addicts and non-eating addicts, it was determined that the total score of emotion regulation difficulty, along with strategies and urge, were higher in the eating addict group and the range was lower. While eating addiction among males was more commonly determined, eating addiction was found to be higher in the mothers whose education level was low and who spends more monthly. According to demographic characteristics, in order to evaluate the differentiation of emotion regulation difficulties, significant differences were found in terms of age, class, mother and father education level, number of siblings and income level.