On the relationship between emotional and external eating behavior

Although there is a strong relationship between emotional and external eating, separate subscales for these behaviors have been constructed in the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. This study tries to establish whether this distinction is justified. We studied relationships among self-reported 1....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Addictive behaviors 1995-09, Vol.20 (5), p.585-594
Main Authors: Van Strien, Tatjana, Schippers, Gerard M., Cox, W.Miles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect
Behavior
Behavior, Addictive
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Diet
Eating
Emotions
Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Questionnaires
Social psychology
Social research
Substance-Related Disorders - psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:Although there is a strong relationship between emotional and external eating, separate subscales for these behaviors have been constructed in the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. This study tries to establish whether this distinction is justified. We studied relationships among self-reported 1. (1) degree of emotional and external eating behavior 2. (2) problems with 2.1. (a) emotional distress and relationships, 2.2. (b) stimulus-boundness (inappropriate amounts of either too much or too little exercise, work, leisure activities, and spending money) 2.3. (c) problems with substance use (alcohol, illicit drugs, nicotine, or caffeine) in a sample of female students. No relationships were found between either type of eating behavior and problems with substance use. Furthermore, the significant relationship between emotional and external eating behavior and stimulus-boundness disappeared in the subsample who had problems with overeating. The fact that in all samples emotional eating was significantly related to problems with emotional distress and relationships (anxiety, depression, phobias, suicidal acts or ideations, intimate relations, and sexual contacts) but external eating was not, suggests that the two types of eating behaviors refer to independent constructs. Thus, the use of separate scales to measure these theoretically different aspects of overeating seems warranted.
ISSN:0306-4603
1873-6327
DOI:10.1016/0306-4603(95)00018-8