Investigation of relationship between alexithymia and emotional eating among university students

This study aims to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and emotional eating. For this purpose, by controlling depression, anxiety, and stress variables; the study focuses on the effects of gender, body mass index, and alexithymia on emotional eating. The sample of the research; consists of 378 people studying in Law, Business, Economics, Political Science and International Relations, International Trade and Logistics, Architecture, Classroom Teaching, Special Education, and Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. Personal Information Form, Turkish Emotional Eating Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASÖ) were used to collect data. According to the results, when the variables of depression, anxiety, and stress were controlled, alexithymia does not have a significant effect on emotional eating. The sex has a significant effect on the eating to cope with negative emotions which is the sub-dimension of emotional eating. Looking at the effect of BMI on emotional eating and its sub-dimensions, only a significant effect on the self-control dimension was found. The findings obtained from the analyses are discussed in the light of the related literature. Key Words: alexithymia, emotional eating, body mass index, gender