Free will and emotional eating: The mediating role of coping with stress

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of coping with stress in the association between free will belief and emotional eating. The participants of the research comprised students enrolled in the Faculty of Education at TED University (n = 425). The participant group was ascertained through the utilization of convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Turkish versions of the Coping Styles Inventory (CSI), the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21), the Free Will and Determinism Scale (FAD-Plus), and a demographic information questionnaire. Utilizing SPSS Model 4 in PROCESS Macro, a simple mediation analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of coping with stress in the correlation between free will belief and emotional eating. Consistent with the findings derived from the relevant literature, distinct analyses were conducted for males and females with the intention of assessing the gender factor. Also, considering the literature and the findings of the preliminary analysis, body mass index (BMI) was incorporated as a covariate variable in the research. The analysis's findings suggested that, for both gender, coping with stress fully mediated the negative correlation between free will belief and emotional eating. In addition, BMI as a covariate was found to be significant among both males and females. The findings of the present study were assessed in accordance with existing literature, relevant theoretical and practical implications were discussed in accordance with the results, and recommendations for further research were presented.