Emotional clarity, adult attachment and emotional eating

Emotional eating is one of the most studied topics recently and has been the subject of many medical and psychological studies. This research examined the relationship among emotional eating, emotional clarity, and adult attachment and was conducted during the Coronavirus pandemic, in two periods (self- quarantine and new normal periods) with and without governmental restrictions. The study was conducted with a total of 194 participants; 69 in the self- quarantine period and 125 in the new normal period; between the ages of 20-45. To measure emotional eating scores, eating with positive and negative emotions subscale of "Emotional Appetite Questionnaire" (Demirel et. al., 2014) was used. Emotional clarity subscale of "Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Strategies" (Rugancı & Gençöz, 2010) was used to measure emotional clarity. Additionally, to measure attachment dimensions, "Experiences in Close Relationships- Revised" (Selçuk et. al., 2005) scale was used. As a result, a positive correlation between attachment anxiety and emotional clarity scores, as well as attachment avoidance and emotional clarity scores were found in the new-normal period. In this period, no significant relationship was found between emotional eating and attachment dimensions and emotional clarity scores. In self-quarantine period, positive relationships between attachment anxiety and eating with positive emotions scores, as well as attachment anxiety and emotional clarity scores were found. However, no significant differences were found between avoidant attachment dimension and emotional eating and emotional clarity scores during this period. The findings were evaluated in the light of the literature and suggestions for future studies were presented. Keywords: emotional eating, eating with positive emotions, eating with negative emotions, emotional clarity, attachment, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance