The relationship between emotional eating and depression, anxiety, stress

The main purpose of the study is to evaulate the association between emotional eating and depression, anxiety and stress levels. The effect of age, gender, marital status and the variables related to weight on emotional eating and depression, anxiety and stress levels is investigated. 785 volunteer participants whose ages between 18 and 68 were included in the study. To assess the level of emotional eating Dutch Eating Behavior Test which was developed by Van Strein, Frijters, Bergers ve Defares in 1986 and standardized by Tekok in 1988 was used. To assess the levels of depression, anxiety and stress Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) which was developed by Lovibond and Lovibond in 1995, and standardized by Çetin, Abacı and Akın (2006) were used. According to research results, participants who showed higher emotional eating have higher depression (9,95±8,61), anxiety (11,25±8,34) and stress (16,53±12,68) scores compared to participants who have lower emotional eating scores. In addition, age, gender, marital status and the variables related to weight has an significant effect on emotional eating, depression, anxiety and stress levels. Results and limitations of the study, suggestion for future studies were discussed in the light of the literature.