Interoceptive awareness and emotional eating in college women: the role of appetite and emotional awareness

Abstract

Objective: Emotional eating is prevalent among college women. Deficits in interoceptive awareness, or the ability to perceive and identify internal sensations, are associated with emotional eating. Separately examining the specific components of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, in relation to emotional eating may improve prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women.

Participants: 143 women at an urban Northeastern university.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using self-report measures of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, emotional eating, and depression. Simultaneous regression analyses examined the independent association of appetite and emotional awareness with emotional eating, controlling for depression.

Results: Consistent with hypotheses, lower interoceptive awareness was associated with higher emotional eating. Appetite and emotional awareness, were each uniquely associated with emotional eating independent of depression, even when entered simultaneously.

Conclusions: Future prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women should target improvements in appetite and emotional awareness.

Keywords:

• Appetite awareness
• college women
• emotional eating
• emotional awareness
• interoceptive awareness

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Drs. Kelly McClure, Cori McMahon, and Mary Driscoll for proof reading this article and providing additional analysis considerations.

Conflict of interest disclosure

Both authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.