Childhood trauma, life satisfaction and emotional eating in university students

Objective: This research was conducted to determine the relationship between childhood trauma, the satisfaction with life and emotional eating. Material and Method: The population of the research constitutes of 21889 students studying in Aydın Adnan Menderes University. 453 students were included in sample group. The students in the sample group stratified according to the faculties. The data were collected using the Questionnaire on Sociodemographic Characteristics, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), The Adults Life Satisfaction Scale (ALSS) and Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ). The data obtained from the research were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). During the evaluation of data, descriptive statistical methods (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum, median and maximum), Mann Whitney U, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for normally distributed measures in comparisons of more than two independent groups, Kruskal Wallis for those without normal distribution analysis was applied. In the case of statistically significant difference between the groups, Bonferroni analysis was performed to determine which two groups the difference was between. The reliability of the measurements used in the study was tested with the Cronbach Alpha reliability analysis. The level of significance was taken as p<0.05. Findings: When the distribution of university students included in the study according to their demographic characteristics is examined; it was determined that 62.72% were female and 37.3% were male. The students' Childhood Trauma Scale mean score was 81.75±7.51, Adult Life Satisfaction Scale mean score was 75.26±12.45 and Emotional Eating Scale mean score was 21.48±6.21. In our study, it was found that there was a statistically significant positive and moderate relationship between the Childhood Trauma Scale score and the Adult Satisfaction with Life Scale score (r=0.492, p= 0.000), and a statistically significant negative low level relationship between the Adult Life Satisfaction Scale score and the Emotional Eating Scale score (r=-0.139, p= 0.003), it was determined that there was no statistically significant relationship between Childhood Traumas Scale score and Emotional Eating Scale score (p>0.05). Results: The result of our research indicates that as childhood traumas increase in university student, life satisfaction increases, and as life satisfaction decreases, emotional eating behavior increases. In addition, there is no relationship between childhood traumas and emotional eating behavior. Keywords: Adolescence, Childhood Trauma, Emotinal Eating, Life Satisfaction