The mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between negative emotions, positive emotions, and emotional eating among young adults in Malaysia

Chong, Xuan Ni and Heng, Wee Keat and Ruan, Yu (2022) The mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between negative emotions, positive emotions, and emotional eating among young adults in Malaysia. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Overweight and obesity have affected millions of lives around the world including about half of the Malaysian population. Although it has affected a lot of people, there have been limited studies done on the relationship between positive emotions, negative emotions, emotional eating, and emotion regulation. Thus, this study applied a cross-sectional research design to understand (1) the predictive role of positive and negative emotions on emotional eating and emotion regulation, (2) the predictive role of emotion regulation on emotional eating, (3) the mediator role of emotion regulation in the relationship between positive and negative emotions with emotional eating among young adults in Malaysia. In general, 638 participants were recruited using purposive sampling and responded to the online survey distributed through social media. However, only 484 responses that met the criteria were selected for the data analysis process. The criteria were the participants must be Malaysians aged between 18 to 40 years old (M = 22.7). In total, there were more females (N = 316; 65%) than males (N = 170; 35%). The result of this study revealed that positive and negative emotions positively predicted emotional eating. In addition, negative emotions negatively predicted emotion regulation while positive emotions positively predicted emotion regulation. Moreover, emotion regulation negatively predicted emotional eating. Lastly, emotion regulation served as a mediator in the association between negative and positive emotions with emotional eating. In conclusion, this study has provided valuable information on the relationship between positive emotions, negative emotions, emotional eating, and emotion regulation which would be useful for future research and healthcare professionals to develop a constructive intervention program to help their patients.

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