Investigation of the relationship between perceived parental attitudes and emotional eating behavior in the emerging adulthood: The meditory role of adult separation anxiety

The main purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between perceived parenting attitudes during emerging adulthood, emotional eating behavior and adult separation anxiety. The sample of this study consisted of 552 participants, 407 (73.7%) female and 145 (26.3%) male.The age of the participants ranged between 18 and 29 with a mean age of 23.39 (SD=3.01). The data were collected using the Demographic Information Form, the Abbreviated Parental Attitude Questionnaire-Child Form (APAQ-C), the Adult Separation Anxiety Scale (ASAS), and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). The data were analyzed by using independent sample t-tests, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation analysis through structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, there were significant relationships between the perceived parental attitudes (sub-dimensions of mother and father) and emotional eating behavior and adult separation anxiety. The results of the regression analyses indicated that the overprotective mothe, rejecting mother/father and adult separation anxiety significantly predicted emotional eating. The model including the variables of gender, age, emotional warmth of mother/father, overprotective mother/father, rejecting mother/father, and adult separation anxiety accounted for 28% of the variance (R²= .28, F(9, 542) = 29.748, p<.001). The results of the mediation analysis showed adult separation anxiety fully mediated the relationship between overprotective father attitude and emotional eating behavior (β= .03, p<.05). This study, which is believed to make important contributions to protective and preventive mental health studies, contributes to understanding the role of remotional eating behavior as a risk factor in the development and maintenance of eating disorders, as well as adult separation anxiety in the country literature.