Although better childhood emotion regulation skills are associated with lower emotional eating, weight status and negative body image influence this link and should be considered as important foci in future interventions that aim to reduce emotional eating in adolescence, according to a study published in Nutrients. With prior research indicating that emotion regulation may be a key predictor of emotional eating—associated with increased risk of binge eating, eating in the absence of hunger, and obesity risk—and little known about other factors that may influence the link between emotional regulation and emotional eating in adolescence, researchers conducted a multi-method longitudinal study to examine associations between childhood emotion regulation, adolescent weight status and negative body image, and emotional eating at age 17. Adolescent emotional eating was predicted by emotion regulation, a link that was moderated by weight status (β = 1.19, p < 0.01) and negative body image (β = -0.34, p < 0.01). Lower emotional regulation predicted higher engagement in emotional eating among normal-weight teens (β = -0.46, p < 0.001) but not among overweight/obese teens (β = -0.46, p < 0.001). Higher scores on emotion regulation were significantly associated with lower emotional eating at high (β = -1.59, p < 0.001) and low (β = -1.00, p < 0.01) levels of negative body image. Higher negative body image predicted emotional eating only among overweight/obese teens (β = 0.70, p < 0.001).
