ORIGINAL PAPER
The moderating effects of mindfulness facets on psychological distress and emotional eating behaviour
| 1 | Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield,
United Kingdom |
Submission date: 2021-05-26
Final revision date: 2021-08-30
Acceptance date: 2021-09-08
Online publication date: 2021-10-18
Publication date: 2021-10-18
Health Psychology Report 2022;10(2):103–110
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
health attitudes and behaviorquality of life and well beingresearch methodology, measurement, and statistics in health psychology
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Emotional eating is an impulsive mood-regulation strategy that often follows psychological distress. Mindfulness is associated with less impulsive behaviour. Mindful eating involves a considered awareness of hunger and satiety, and conscious, non-automatic, food choices. This study examines the moderating
Material and methods:
Participants (N = 392) completed self-report measures on distress, mindfulness and emotional eating, after which moderation analysis was carried out.
Results:
Mindfulness was negatively associated with emotional eating, but only when distress was low. The most important facets of mindfulness for this were being able to describe one’s emotional state and a non-judgemental response to that state.
Conclusions:
These results support previous findings that mindfulness reduces the impact distress has on emotional eating. Future research could explore interventions that enable individuals to describe their emotional state in the moment to reduce preoccupation with food during times of distress.
Emotional eating is an impulsive mood-regulation strategy that often follows psychological distress. Mindfulness is associated with less impulsive behaviour. Mindful eating involves a considered awareness of hunger and satiety, and conscious, non-automatic, food choices. This study examines the moderating
Material and methods:
Participants (N = 392) completed self-report measures on distress, mindfulness and emotional eating, after which moderation analysis was carried out.
Results:
Mindfulness was negatively associated with emotional eating, but only when distress was low. The most important facets of mindfulness for this were being able to describe one’s emotional state and a non-judgemental response to that state.
Conclusions:
These results support previous findings that mindfulness reduces the impact distress has on emotional eating. Future research could explore interventions that enable individuals to describe their emotional state in the moment to reduce preoccupation with food during times of distress.
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