The relationship between emotional eating, self-compassion, and body perception in adult men

Today, the concept of an ideal body, which exerts pressure on people, leads to the belief that an individual should be at the weight determined by society. With this pressure, people strive to reach the specified weight, seeing having an ideal weight as a success. When an individual cannot achieve the weight values they qualify as success, various psychological disorders can emerge. Accordingly, feelings such as guilt, self-worthlessness, and insecurity also arise in people who cannot reach the weight they want. The individual who cannot prevent himself in terms of emotional eating also feels anger towards himself afterwards, and these negative emotions mentioned push the individual to emotional eating behavior, and he can remain in a cyclical table. Therefore, in this thesis study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between emotional eating behavior and self-compassion and body perception in adult men. 215 adult men aged 18-65 participated in the study. As data collection tools, the Demographic Information Form prepared by the researcher; Body Perception Scale (BPS), Emotional Eating Scale (EES) and Self Sensitivity Scale (SSS) were used. In the analysis of the research data where the relational screening method was used, Independent Groups t-Test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation, Multiple Regression Analysis were applied to examine the relationship between the variables of the research. This study investigates the impact of body perception, self-awareness, and self-compassion on emotional eating. The findings indicate a significant influence of body perception, self-awareness, and self-compassion scores on emotional eating behaviors. Specifically, as self-judgment and self-compassion scores increase, emotional eating behaviors also increase. Furthermore, it has been determined that emotional eating behaviors are more frequently observed in cases where body perception is negative. The combination of these three factors provides a better understanding of individuals' emotional eating behaviors.