Examination of the mediation of uncertainty tolerance and impulsivity levels in the relationship of eating behavior with personality traits among university students

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of intolerance of uncertainty and impulsivity on the relationship between disordered eating attitudes and personality traits in university students. Within the scope of the study, the data were given to 590 university students with "Personal Information Form", "Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire"," Uncertainty Intolerance Scale", "Barratt Impulsivity Scale" and "Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised Short Form" and "Brief Symptom Inventory" for the evaluation of psychological symptoms. Inventory" has been applied. In the study, Pearson Correlation was applied to examine the relationship between the dimensions of disordered eating behavior (emotional, restrictive, and external eating) and personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and psychoticism). With related variables, disordered eating behavior sub-dimensions were taken as dependent variables and hierarchical regression analysis was performed by taking personality traits, impulsivity and intolerance to uncertainty dimensions as independent variables. The sixth model was applied over the IBM SPSS 25.0 PROCESS plug-in to analyze the effects of impulsivity and intolerance to uncertainty dimensions on the relationship between eating behaviors and personality traits by identifying significant predictors. According to the findings of the study, there is a positive relationship between emotional eating and impulsivity and neuroticism. A negative significant relationship was found between emotional eating and extraversion. A positive and significant relationship was found between the restrictive eating dimension and neuroticism, impulsivity and intolerance to uncertainty. A negative and significant relationship was found between restrictive eating and extraversion. A negative correlation was found between the external eating dimension and impulsivity; No significant relationship was found with intolerance of uncertainty. According to hierarchical regression analysis findings, emotional eating is significantly predicted by neuroticism and extraversion. The fact that the participants had high neuroticism scores and low extraversion scores explained their emotional eating scores significantly. In addition, the increase in emotional eating and impulsivity, attention deficit and motor impulsivity sub-dimensions significantly predicted the increase in emotional eating scores. Emotional eating scores were significantly predicted by the increase in the uncertainty inhibition sub-dimension scores. Restrictive eating sub-dimension and neuroticism, unplanned impulsivity, and uncertainty sub-dimension are predicted significantly by the increase in their scores. The external eating sub-dimension was significantly predicted by the increase in the motor impulsivity sub-dimension scores and the decrease in the impulsivity of being unable to plan sub-dimension scores. In addition, the external eating sub-dimension was significantly predicted by the increase in the scores of the uncertainty inhibition sub-dimension. When the findings related to mediator role analysis are examined, neuroticism significantly predicts emotional eating through personality sub-scales, motor impulsivity, attention-deficit-related impulsivity, stressed about uncertainty and uncertainty preventing action. It was concluded that impulsivity and intolerance to uncertainty scores had a partial mediator role in the relationship between neuroticism and emotional eating scores. When the findings regarding the mediating role of the impulsivity and intolerance to uncertainty sub-scales in the relationship between extraversion and emotional eating were examined, a direct relationship was found between the extraversion sub-scale and emotional eating, and it was observed that the total effect of stressed about uncertainty sub-scale increased significantly. In addition, impulsivity as a mediator role did not have a significant effect; whereas stressed about uncertainty scores were found to have a partial mediator role in the relationship between extraversion and emotional eating. When the mediating role of intolerance to uncertainty and impulsivity sub-scales in the relationship between restrictive eating and neuroticism sub-scales were examined, a direct relationship was found between neuroticism sub-dimension and restrictive eating, and it was observed that the total effect on attention impulsivity and the stressing of uncertainty sub-scales increased significantly. Accordingly, impulsivity and intolerance of uncertainty sub-dimensions seem to have a partial mediating role in the relationship between restrictive eating and neuroticism. According to the results, the sub-scales of attention deficit impulsivity and uncertainty preventing action had a partial mediating role in the relationship between neuroticism and restrictive eating scores of the participants. The results obtained in the study provide important findings about the emerging adulthood in which eating behaviors are widely studied. This study, which was found to be related to different factors in the dimensions of disordered eating behavior, contributed to both practical and research areas.