Psychometrics of the Eating in Emotional Situations Questionnaire (EESQ) among low-income Latino elementary-school children

Abstract

The current study examines the psychometric properties of the Eating in Emotional Situations Questionnaire (EESQ) and the frequency of eating in emotional situations among 159 low-income Latino fourth graders. The EESQ assesses eating in emotional situations that are emotion-driven (“I eat when I am lonely”) and context-driven (“I eat when I get a really bad grade”). Internal consistencies for the EESQ subscales and total scale ranged from .70 to .86. Criterion validity of the EESQ was established by statistically significant correlations between the EESQ subscales and total scale, and uncontrollable eating, external eating, and junk food intake. Eating in emotional situations was common in the sample; almost one-half reported eating in at least 3 of the 11 types of emotional situations (e.g. when stressed, sad, bored) and 28% reported eating in at least 6 types. Overall, these findings provide support for the internal consistency and validity of the EESQ in low-income Latino children, and suggest that eating in emotional situations is moderately present in this demographic. Future studies are needed to validate the EESQ in other ethnic groups and examine the longitudinal tracking of eating in emotional situations among Latino youth.

Two facets of stress and indirect effects on child diet through emotion-driven eating

“…Positively-worded items were reverse-coded such that higher scores represented greater stress. Emotion-driven eating was measured with the six items of the Emotion Driven factor from the Eating in Emotional Situations Questionnaire (Rollins et al, 2011). Response options were: 1 = Never; 2 = Sometimes; 3 = Often ; higher scores indicated greater emotion-driven eating.…”

“…Emotion-driven eating is the tendency to consume food as a means to cope with moods or stress rather than physical hunger (Nguyen-Rodriguez, Chou, Unger, & Spruijt-Metz, 2008; Rollins et al, 2011; Spruijt-Metz, 1999) and may be an important underlying process connecting stress to dietary intake. Among children, emotion-driven eating has been associated with stressful life events (Hou et al, 2013; Michels et al, 2012) and intake of sweet and salty energy-dense foods (Nguyen-Michel et al, 2007; Rollins et al, 2011).…”

“…Among children, emotion-driven eating has been associated with stressful life events (Hou et al, 2013; Michels et al, 2012) and intake of sweet and salty energy-dense foods (Nguyen-Michel et al, 2007; Rollins et al, 2011). Emotion-driven eating has been associated with higher snack food intake with television and video-gaming in children (Pentz, Spruijt-Metz, Chou, & Riggs, 2011; Snoek, van Strien, Janssens, & Engels, 2006).…”

“…Emotion-driven eating has been associated with higher snack food intake with television and video-gaming in children (Pentz, Spruijt-Metz, Chou, & Riggs, 2011; Snoek, van Strien, Janssens, & Engels, 2006). Emotional eating has been found to occur at higher rates for girls, (Hou et al, 2013) yet is associated with more frequent fruit and vegetable consumption (Nguyen-Michel et al, 2007) and high-calorie/low nutrient food intake in boys (Rollins et al, 2011). Stress may increase emotional eating in adolescents (Kubiak, Vogele, Siering, Schiel, & Weber, 2008; Pentz et al, 2011).…”

Low-income women's conceptualizations of emotional- and stress-eating

“…Both scales, however, lump emotional-, stress-, and bored-eating together, and the factor structure of the CEBQ Emotional Eating subscale has not always been replicable (Sparks & Raditz, 2012). In addition, endorsement of emotional- or stress-eating in children by parental or child self-report has been low in a number of studies (Lumeng et al, 2014; Rollins et al, 2011; van Strien & Oosterveld, 2008; Wardle et al, 2001). How parents conceptualize emotional- or stress-eating in children is not well understood.…”