Effects of Perceived Stress on Problematic Eating: Three Parallel Moderated Mediation Models

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Health Behavior Research
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Stress significantly impacts health behaviors, especially problematic eating patterns.
• The psychological mechanisms linking stress and eating behaviors require further investigation.
• Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for developing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mediating role of irrational health beliefs in the stress-problematic eating relationship.
• To examine the moderating effect of negative coping styles on stress-induced eating.
• To analyze associations with restrained, emotional, and external eating behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Online survey administered to 929 emerging adults (57.8% female, mean age 21.50 years).
• Self-reported data collected on perceived stress, irrational health beliefs, coping styles, and eating behaviors.
• Statistical analyses employed to test mediation and moderation hypotheses.

Main Results:

• Perceived stress positively correlated with restrained, emotional, and external eating.
• Irrational health beliefs partially mediated the associations (indirect effects: 0.24, 0.40, 0.07).
• Negative coping styles moderated stress associations with restrained (β=0.05, p=0.047) and emotional eating (β=0.08, p=0.001), but not external eating.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive factors like irrational beliefs and negative coping styles play a role in stress-induced eating.
• Interventions should target cognitive restructuring of health beliefs.
• Promoting adaptive coping strategies is essential for managing stress and preventing unhealthy eating.