Investigation of the Relationship Between Emotional Eating and Psychological Resilience in High School Students.

PROBLEM: Adolescents' focus on self-appearance may cause emotional eating. Resilience and coping skills may prevent this. This study investigates the relationship between emotional eating and resilience among high school students.

METHODS

This descriptive, relational study was conducted with 477 students from five high schools in Antalya, Türkiye. The data were collected face-to-face using Personal Information Form, the Emotional Eating Scale for Children and Adolescents, and the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Parametric tests were used in analysis.

FINDINGS: Male students had higher scores in Emotional Eating Scale for Children and Adolescents, in anxiety-anger-frustration and feeling unsettled subscales. Anxiety-anger-frustration scores were related significantly to Body Mass Index and study-time snacking. Depressive symptoms scores were linked to snacking while watching. Feeling unsettled scores were related to sweets/snacks consumption and study-time snacking. Resilience was significantly associated with grade, income, academic success, fast food/snack intake, and regular meals. No significant correlation found between emotional eating and resilience. Regression showed emotional eating was affected by height and study-time snacking; resilience was affected by height, grade, income, academic success, regular dinners.

CONCLUSION

Emotional eating and resilience are associated with sociodemographic and eating behavior factors, but no significant link was found between them.