The examination of childhood traumas, personal characteristics and psychological symptoms as determiners of emotional eating

In this study, the relationship of childhood traumas, personality traits and psychological symptoms with emotional eating in adults is examined. Another aim of the study is to investigate whether emotional eating levels differ according to socio-demographic variables. The sample of the study consists of a total of 382 participants aged between 18 and 65. The Turkish Emotional Eating Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated(EPQR-A) and Demographic Information Form were administered to the participants. The data obtained from the study were examined through Spearman correlation analysis and regression analysis. According to the results obtained, childhood traumas were associated with emotional eating, except for the physical neglect sub-dimension. When the relationship between psychological symptoms and emotional eating behavior was examined, a positive and significant relationship was found. It was found that the neuroticism sub-dimension of personality traits was positively related to the emotional eating behavior and negatively related to the lying sub-dimension. In the correlation analysis; A significant relationship was found between the variables of gender, marital status, educational status, income, employment status, how the person sees himself/herself and making an effort to lose weight and emotional eating. It was determined that the BSI anxiety, how the person sees herself/himself, age, occupation, psychological discomfort, gender, height, Childhood traumas scale total score, emotional abuse and BSI somatization significantly predict emotional eating behavior. The mentioned variables explain 40,40% of the variance. Research findings are discussed in the literature.