The relationship between early maladaptive schemas and impulsivity and emotional eating in adult individuals

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and impulsivity and emotional eating. In this study, the relational screening model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used to determine the relationship between the variables. The participants in the study were formed according to the convenience sampling method. The study consisted of a total of 227 participants, 168 female and 59 male, over the age of 18. Demographic information form, Young Schema Scale-Short Form 3 (YSÖ-SF3), Barrat Impulsivity Scale Short Form (BIS-11-SF), and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) were used as data collection tools. The statistics of the data were obtained with the SPSS 27 program. The conformity of the data to normality was analyzed and the distribution was found to be normal. As a result, the analyzes were performed with parametric tests. T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for independent groups, and Tukey post hoc test was used to determine which groups had significant differences between the variables. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analyses were applied to test the predictive power. According to the research results, significant and positive relationships were found between the level of emotional eating and early maladaptive schema areas and impulsivity sub-dimensions. In particular, it was observed that emotional eating behavior increased in individuals with high scores in schema sub-domains and that the level of attentional impulsivity from the impulsivity sub-dimensions was significantly predicted by these variables. These findings show that emotional eating behaviors are fed by both the cognitive schema patterns that develop in the individual's childhood and their impulsive tendencies; schemas affect this behavior in connection with emotional needs and impulsivity in connection with reactive behaviors.