Emotional eating behavior in university students: The role of emotion regulation difficulty and parental emotional availability

Emotional eating is one of the most common eating behaviors in university students and poses a risk for eating disorders. This study aimed to examine the relationship between difficulty in emotion regulation and parental emotional availability and emotional eating in university students. The research was conducted based on the relational survey model. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 425 students, 260 women (61.2%) and 165 men (38.8%), aged 18-31, who were studying at a foundation university in Ankara in the 2023-2024 academic year. As data collection tools in the study, the Demographic Information Form was used to obtain descriptive information of the participants, and the Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale, Turkish Emotional Eating Scale, and Parental Emotional Availability Scale were used for the purpose of the research. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic information. Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analyzes were conducted to examine the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties, parental emotional availability, and emotional eating behavior. As a result of Pearson correlation analysis, a moderate positive and significant relationship was found between emotional eating behavior and emotion regulation difficulties scores; a low-level negative significant relationship between emotional eating behavior and parental emotional availability mother and father scores; parental emotional availability was found to be highly positive and significant between mother and father scores. As a result of stepwise regression analysis, students' increase in appetite when experiencing positive and negative emotions, difficulty in emotion regulation, self-perception as overweight, being on a diet, and emotional availability to the father were found to be significant predictors of emotional eating behavior. In addition, it was found that gender, age, place of residence of the individual, smoking-alcohol use, body mass index (BMI) and emotional availability to the mother were not significant predictors of emotional eating behavior. As a result of the findings, the relationship between emotional regulation difficulties and parental emotional availability and emotional eating behavior in university students was discussed in light of the relevant literature.