Depressive Symptoms and Emotional Eating: Mediated by Mindfulness?

Abstract

The association between depressive symptoms and emotional eating has been well established. The aim of the current study was to examine whether the association between depressive symptoms and emotional eating was mediated by mindfulness, a construct that has successfully been implemented in the treatment of eating disorders and depression. Mindfulness, particularly, the component Bacting with awareness^was theorized to decrease impulsive eating. Data from 417 Dutch adult participants were analyzed. Mediation analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling in Mplus. Of the five mindfulness subcomponents, only acting with awareness mediated the association between depressive symptoms and emotional eating. Results showed complete mediation in that the effect of depression on emotional eating was entirely carried indirectly through the mediator acting with awareness. None of the other mindfulness components mediated the depressive symptoms-emotional eating link. This indicates the potential importance of the Bacting with awareness^construct, explaining why depressive symptoms would be associated with emotional eating. Future prospective research should examine whether, why and for whom acting with awareness may mediate the prospective link from depressive symptoms to emotional eating.

Understanding the relationship between negative emotional eating and binge eating: The moderating effects of acting with awareness and non‐reactive mindfulness

“…Furthermore, these data are in line with previous research documenting a negative relationship between acting with awareness mindfulness and negative emotional eating in people who are overweight with diabetes (Levin et al, 2014; Ouwens et al, 2015; Tak et al, 2015). More recent research demonstrated that acting with awareness mindfulness fully mediated the relationship between depressive symptomatology and negative emotional eating in the general population, possibly leading to decreased emotional eating (Höppener et al, 2019). The protective effect of acting with awareness mindfulness on the association between emotional eating‐depression and BE should be considered in light of the contrasting effects of non‐reactive mindfulness.…”

The Clinical Obesity Maintenance Model: A Theoretical Framework for Bariatric Psychology

“…Individuals with obesity often demonstrate a dysregulated physiological response to intense emotion, known as emotional eating. Specific aspects of emotion dysregulation, such as a lowered tendency to act with emotional awareness ( 58 ), difficulty identifying emotions ( 59 ), and limited access to emotion regulation strategies ( 60 ) have been implicated. A high prevalence of emotion dysregulation in pre-surgery bariatric patients has been shown ( 61 ), and pre-surgery maladaptive eating was in one study initiated by both avoidance (of negative affect) and approach (reward sensitivity) behaviors ( 62 ).…”

The moderating effects of mindfulness facets on psychological distress and emotional eating behaviour

“…Our study reports data on a large community sample, including males and females, potentially making it more applicable to the general population. Höppener et al (2019) explored the association between mindfulness, depressive symptoms and emotional eating using a multifactorial measure, but their focus was on the mediating effect of this relationship. They found that the only facet to mediate the association between depressive symptoms and emotional eating was acting with awareness.…”