Does trait emotional eating intensify stress responses? A quasi-experimental study on cognitive control, biological reactivity and appetite

IF 2.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

British Journal of Health Psychology Pub Date : 2026-04-12 DOI:10.1111/bjhp.70060

Mahsa AkbarianFiroozabadi, Jafar Hasani, Alireza Moradi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

Emotional eating (EE), characterized by dysregulated food intake in response to emotional stimuli, is associated with adverse physical and psychological outcomes and has been linked to alterations in executive functioning and stress-related biological reactivity. This study aimed to investigate stress-induced changes in food-related inhibitory control, emotional working memory capacity (eWMC), appetite and fasting blood glucose (FBG) in individuals with high versus low EE.

Method

Ninety adults (45 high EE, 45 low EE), aged 18–45, were assessed before and after the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Measures included food-related inhibitory control, eWMC, appetite and FBG.

Results

The main effect of time was significant for all variables except FBG. However, significant group × time interactions were observed for all outcomes. Specifically, compared with the lowEE group, the highEE group showed greater stress reactivity, with significant post-stress declines in inhibitory control (p < .001), increased appetite (p = .001), increased FBG (p = .043) and weaker eWMC (p < .001). The lowEE group only showed a significant post-stress decline in eWMC scores (p = .01).

Discussion

These findings highlight the importance of emotion regulation processes in stress-related eating and metabolic reactivity and may inform prevention and intervention strategies.

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情绪性进食会加剧应激反应吗？认知控制、生物反应和食欲的准实验研究。

目的：情绪性进食（EE）的特征是对情绪刺激的食物摄入失调，与不良的生理和心理结果有关，并与执行功能和压力相关的生物反应性的改变有关。本研究旨在探讨应激诱导的食物相关抑制控制、情绪工作记忆容量（eWMC）、食欲和空腹血糖（FBG）在高情绪表达和低情绪表达个体中的变化。方法：对90例18-45岁的成人（高情感表达45例，低情感表达45例）在进行特里尔社会压力测试（TSST）前后进行评估。测量包括食物相关抑制控制、eWMC、食欲和FBG。结果：除FBG外，时间对各变量的主效应均显著。然而，所有结果均观察到显著的组×时间相互作用。具体来说，与低情商组相比，高情商组表现出更大的应激反应，应激后抑制控制显著下降(p讨论：这些发现强调了情绪调节过程在应激相关饮食和代谢反应中的重要性，并可能为预防和干预策略提供信息。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Health Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

14.10

自引率

1.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The focus of the British Journal of Health Psychology is to publish original research on various aspects of psychology that are related to health, health-related behavior, and illness throughout a person's life. The journal specifically seeks articles that are based on health psychology theory or discuss theoretical matters within the field.