Appetite 60 (2013) 187–192

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Appetite
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet

Research report

Perceptions of emotional eating behavior. A qualitative study of college students

Jessica Bennett a, Geoffrey Greene a, Donna Schwartz-Barcott b,⇑
a
Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Ranger Hall, Kingston, RI 02881, United States
b
College of Nursing, University of Rhode Island, White Hall, Kingston, RI 02881, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Approximately one-third of college students are overweight or obese and the average student gains 5 kg
Received 9 January 2012 during college. Previous research has identified a relationship between emotional eating and weight gain
Received in revised form 29 August 2012 in young adults, but outside the realm of eating disorders, few studies qualitatively capture why individ-
Accepted 20 September 2012
uals cope with emotions by eating. Exploratory qualitative research was conducted, including 3-day food
Available online 6 October 2012
journals and indepth interviews, with proportionate quota sampling of eight male and eight female
undergraduate students to gain an understanding of students’ perceptions of their emotional eating
Keywords:
behaviors. Participants were purposively selected based on their emotional eating scores on the Weight
Qualitative research
Emotional eating
Related Eating Questionnaire from a larger survey assessing student eating behaviors. Participants’
Emotions (n = 16) mean age was 19.6 ± 1.0 years and all self-reported their race to be white. Mean Body Mass Index
Dietary behaviors (BMI) for females and males was 24.1 ± 1.2 kg/m2 and 24.8 ± 1.7 kg/m2, respectively. Findings from the
College population qualitative analyses indicated gender differences and similarities. Females identified stress as the pri-
mary trigger for emotional eating, frequently followed by guilt. Males were primarily triggered by
unpleasant feelings such as boredom or anxiety turning to food as a distraction; however, males were less
likely to experience guilt after an emotional eating episode than females. During emotional eating
episodes, both genders chose what they defined as unhealthful foods. These findings indicate a multidis-
ciplinary intervention focusing on emotion and stress management in addition to dietary behavior
change should be developed to reduce the potential for weight gain associated with emotional eating
in the college-aged population.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
One out of every three Americans are obese and two out of
every three Americans are overweight (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, &
Curtin, 2010). Data from the National Health and Nutrition Exam-
ination Survey 2009–2010 indicated that 18.3% of adolescents (12–
19 years of age) were obese and 32.6% in 20–39 year olds (Ogden,
Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). The increase in the prevalence of obes-
ity appears to be caused by a gradual, but sustained annual in-
crease in weight. Investigators from the Coronary Artery Risk
Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study found young adults
aged 18–30 years at baseline gained an average of 0.69–1.19 kg/
year over 10 years. In men and African–American women, total
weight gain during the early to midtwenties was larger than during
the thirties (Lewis et al., 2000). In 2009, 20% of college students
were considered overweight and 11% obese (American College
Health Association, 2009); Zagorsky and Smith found that college
students gain an average of 5 kg (Zagorsky & Smith, 2011). Over
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: jessicatbennett@gmail.com (J. Bennett), gwg@uri.edu (G.
Greene), dsb@uri.edu (D. Schwartz-Barcott).
time, this weight gain can lead to overweight and obesity. Obese
individuals are at greater risk for chronic conditions such as arthri-
tis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and hyperten-
sion (Malnick & Knobler, 2006).
Emotional eating has been defined as eating in response to
emotional cues, often as a coping response to negative emotions
(Kandiah, Yake, Jones, & Meyer, 2006; Konttinen, Mannisto,
Lahteenkorva, Silventoinen, & Haukkala, 2010; Laitinen, Ek, &
Sovio, 2002; Macht & Simons, 2000) and is associated with weight
gain (Blair, Lewis, & Booth, 1990; Geliebter & Aversa, 2003). How-
ever, most of this research has focused on individuals with eating
disorders (Fox, 2009; McNamara, Chur-Hansen, & Hay, 2008;
Skarderud, 2007). Few studies used qualitative research methods
to explore the phenomena in individuals without eating pathology
(Fox, 2009; Macht, Meininger, & Roth, 2005). Due to the variability
in emotions and eating behaviors, different emotions may increase
or decrease eating. More research is needed to explore why
emotions can increase food intake in certain eaters for instance,
but decrease food intake in other groups (Macht, 2008). This
exploratory research was conducted to understand the perceptions
of emotional eating behaviors in college-aged individuals in
general and whether any differences exist between male and

0195-6663/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.09.023
188 J. Bennett et al. / Appetite 60 (2013) 187–192
Table 1
Content and theoretical background of interview protocol.
Questions
What are you favorite foods? Why? Do you have any stories
associated with these foods? Is there any particular way you
express these emotions?
Do you ever feel happy? Sad? Angry? Fear? Love? Surprise?
Do these emotions affect your eating behavior?
Do positive emotions affect your eating behaviors differently than
negative emotions?
In qualifying for this study, you scored high on an emotional eating
instrument, what do you think this means?
female students, as a basis of future intervention development
aimed at modifying emotional eating and decreasing weight gain
in susceptible individuals.
Methods
The University of Rhode Island Institutional Review Board re-
viewed and approved this study. Participants gave informed, writ-
ten consent before interviews.
Sampling
Undergraduates (ages 18–24) from The University of Rhode Is-
land were recruited during the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters
in introductory classes via an online survey conducted to assess
cognitive influences on eating behaviors including items assessing
emotional eating (socio-demographic data and anthropometrics
were also collected).
In the survey, emotional eating was assessed using the WREQ
(Schembre, Greene, & Melanson, 2009). The WREQ contains an
emotional eating construct assessed by five items using an an-
chored Likert response scale ranging from one (low) to five (high).
The emotional eating construct was defined as eating in response
to negative emotions, e.g., ‘‘I tend to eat when I am disappointed
or feel let down.’’ Individuals who indicated willingness to partic-
ipate in future nutrition research were eligible for the current
study. Proportional quota sampling was used to randomly select
eight males and eight females with a WREQ emotional eating score
greater than the mean plus one standard deviation for his/her gen-
der. Individuals scoring at or above this criterion (males P12; fe-
males P16) were classified as emotional eaters. Determination of
sample size was based upon previous qualitative studies investi-
gating emotions and eating behavior where samples of 10–13 sub-
jects provided categories suggested by data (Fox, 2009; McNamara
et al., 2008; Skarderud, 2007).
Potential participants were excluded for: an emotional eating
construct less than the criterion; previous diagnosis with an eating
disorder by a professional; BMI less than 21 or greater than 30;
nutrition majors; pregnancy; lactation; smoking or taking medica-
tions affecting appetite. These exclusion criteria preserved internal
validity of participants as emotional eaters within the realm of the
non-clinical ‘‘normal eating’’ population as defined in this study.
Sixteen undergraduate students selected due to high emotional
eating scores on the Weight Related Eating Questionnaire (Schem-
bre et al., 2009) emotional eating subscale kept a 3-day food log
prior to indepth interviews on their emotional eating behaviors.
Table 1 includes the interview guide and theoretical background
of questions. The guide was developed to answer the following re-
search questions:
Activities Theories and conceptual approaches
Probe individual to mention feelings with these Stress/emotions affect food choices
stories, which allows for transition into topic of (Kandiah et al., 2006; Konttinen et al.,
emotions 2010)
List emotions and frequency Emotional patterns (Macht & Simons,
2000)
Describe and provide instances where this occurs Emotionally instrumental eating (Macht
& Simons, 2000)
Contrast positive and negative emotions and Model of emotional eating (Macht, 2008)
varying degrees of impact each emotion exhibits
Discuss whether participant considers himself/ Weight related eating questionnaire
herself to be an emotional eater emotional eating Subscale (Schembre
et al., 2009)
(1) What range of emotions do young adults perceive them-
selves experiencing in their daily lives?
a. Are there any differences between male and female young
adults?
(2) Do young adults perceive any of these emotions as influenc-
ing their eating patterns?
a. Are there any differences between male and female young
adults?
(3) What kind of relationship might exist between emotions and
eating patterns?
a. Are there similarities and differences between how males
and female eating patterns are influenced by emotions?
(4) Do young adults feel that the WREQ instrument correctly
identified them as emotional eaters?
a. Are there any differences between how male and female
young adults identify themselves as emotional eaters?
Data collection
Prospective participants received email notification inviting
them to participate in the current study. Over 45 emails were sent
to recruit potential participants. If they agreed to participate, stu-
dents documented their meals in conjunction with their mood
using a food journal for 3 days prior to the interview. Participants
brought their journals to their interview.
All interviews were conducted by the author on a one-on-one
basis in a private setting in a nutrition laboratory on the university
campus. While the participant was reading and signing the consent
form, the interviewer reviewed the journal to understand the par-
ticipant’s eating behaviors and patterns. When asked about the
food journal, all participants stated they completed the journal to
the best of their ability. From this brief review, additional open-
ended questions for the interview, specific for each participant,
were written down for inclusion in the interview in addition to
semi-structured questions. The intent of the food journal exercise
was to raise participant awareness of eating behavior in relation-
ship to their emotions. With the goal of achieving substantive di-
rect responses during the interview, it was believed additional
reflective time prior to the interview through the food journal
exercise would be beneficial for the participant.
Each interview lasted approximately 30 min, was tape-recorded
and subsequently transcribed. Within a week of each interview
transcription, a one-page summary of the discussion was prepared
and the participant returned a second time for a summary review.
All participants approved the content summary and provided no
additional changes/comments. Participants were compensated se-
ven dollars after the interview and eight dollars after the summary
review.
 J. Bennett et al. / Appetite 60 (2013) 187–192
Prior to the first interview, two pilot interviews were conducted
with two women who were non-clinical emotional eaters during
September 2010 to check the feasibility of the food journal and
the usefulness of the questions in obtaining targeted, thoughtful
responses.
Data analysis
The analysis included several steps, beginning with the tran-
scriptions to an indepth analysis of data from each participant in
relation to the research questions and finally cross participant
comparative analysis.
First, each interview was read several times to check for the
accuracy and completeness of the transcription and to gain famil-
iarity with the text. Second, each participant’s log and interview
were reread to identify the range of emotions experienced by the
participant during the 3-day log and in daily life in general (re-
search question one). Third, the participant’s interview was reread
to examine to what extent, if any, the participant saw these emo-
tions as influencing their eating patterns, and if so how (research
questions two and three). Steps two and three were then repeated
to compare and contrast the range of emotions experienced, the
students’ perceptions of a link between their emotions and their
eating behaviors and the nature of that link. Step four was to ask
whether students identified themselves as emotional eaters in or-
der to further validate the WREQ. These steps were completed by
highlighting quotes and grouping them into possible themes. These
themes (e.g. eating when stressed) were identified across all par-
ticipants and then analyzed by gender, allowing the development
of beginning hypotheses.
Results
Participants
Eight males and eight females were interviewed. The mean age
of the 16 participants was 19.6 ± 1.0 years. Four first year students,
seven second year students, three third year students and two
fourth year students were interviewed. All participants self-
reported their race to be White. The average BMI for females was
24.1 ± 1.2 kg/m2 with a range of 22.7 kg/m2 to 25.7 kg/m2. Three
females had BMIs greater than 25. The mean BMI for males was
24.8 ± 1.7 kg/m2 with a range of 22.8 kg/m2 to 27.7 kg/m2. Four
males had BMIs greater than 25 kg/m2. The mean emotional eating
subscale score was 15.5 ± 2.1 for males (range of 13–20) and
19.8 ± 2.5 for females (range of 17–25). The mean score for non-
participants was 8.3 ± 4.3 for males and 10.6 ± 5.4 for females.
The qualitative findings are presented below, first in relation to
the range of emotions experienced and the negative emotions
associated with eating. This is followed by a discussion of partici-
pant eating patterns during and after periods of emotional eating
and how these had developed over time, especially since becoming
a college student. Lastly, the level of concern participants ex-
pressed about their emotional eating patterns and any efforts they
had tried to reduce these are discussed. Quotations are used to
illustrate the findings. All the initials cited are pseudonyms.
Perceived emotions in daily life
When told they had been identified as emotional eaters, all
eight females and six males agreed that this identification was cor-
rect. The remaining two males disagreed, but they scored lower on
the emotional eating subscale (both scored 15) compared to other
males. Only one male (score of 13) scored lower than the two
males who did not identify themselves as emotional eaters.
189
In the food journals, a small number of emotions were listed
within each individual participant’s journal and across the entire
sample. These included stressed, happy, and bored.
Females perceived themselves as experiencing two main emo-
tions in their daily lives, stress and happiness:
‘‘Stressed out a lot. I feel like I’m stressed out a lot and tired
because I spend four days on campus . . . I’m here all day.’’ (BW)
‘‘I would say I’m a very happy person most of the time, besides
when I get stressed, but that’s mostly during school.’’ (NE)
Males perceived themselves as experiencing stress, happiness,
depression and anxiety:
‘‘Stress. Moving away from home and not having your parents
on your back all the time, you think it would be easier. For
me, it’s the opposite. They’re on my back more now that I’m
here . . . it makes me stressed more.’’ (FJ)
‘‘I normally suffer from anxiety a lot . . . I’m always feeling anx-
ious because I don’t have much time.’’ (GS)
Negative emotions and eating behavior
The participants focused primarily on the negative emotions as
influencing their eating behavior. Females commented that stress
most frequently affected their eating.
‘‘When I get stressed, I tend to eat more because I’m the type of
person that likes to eat when I’m stressed.’’ (NE)
‘‘When I’m upset I know that I eat more. If I’m mad about some-
thing, I’ll just turn to chocolate.’’ (RM)
More specifically, they described levels of stress. For example,
one participant described how a moderate amount of stress led
to increased eating.
‘‘I just got out of work and it was Saturday night. I was stressed
and my roommate got me upset . . . I ate chocolate chip cookies,
ice cream, and then later on in the night I ate cookie dough ice
cream and [more] cookies and [candy] bars.’’ (PB)
Another participant described how difficult levels of stress
affected her eating.
‘‘If I’m sad, I’ll want to eat . . . a lot, but then in other situations I
don’t want to eat. It really depends on what it is and what level
of stress.’’ (AP)
Although less frequent, males also commented on how stress
and relationships may reduce eating.
‘‘When I’m stressed, I probably won’t eat anything during the
day. I get hungry at 12 a.m. . . . and then realize I’m starving so
I order something.’’ (FJ)
‘‘If I break up with someone I’m not going to eat a whole tub of
ice cream. If anything when I get really depressed, I stop eat-
ing.’’ (MM)
The role of family relationships affecting food intake was also
discussed by one female:
‘‘When I’m angry, I don’t really like to eat. My mom was offering
me food and I just kept saying no. When I’m angry, I think I kind
of just deny food.’’ (CK)
Periods of emotional eating
Females discussed the concept of using food as a distraction
mechanism during periods of emotional arousal. During these peri-
ods, they eat without abandon in opposition to their normal eating
patterns where consciousness of intake is observed.
190 J. Bennett et al. / Appetite 60 (2013) 187–192
‘‘I don’t really think about what I’m consuming at all. Whereas
most of the other times during the day [I do] . . . I really worry
about what I am eating.’’ (CK)
Using food as a distraction from schoolwork was also discussed.
‘‘In the library, I was bored so I had a chocolate bar because I
was just sitting there studying and thought I don’t want to be
doing this right now so I’m going to eat a chocolate bar.’’ (EM)
Males discussed emotional eating as a distraction to escape
unpleasant feelings.
‘‘One of the bad things I do is have candy in my room like choc-
olates. When I’m feeling unhappy sometimes I’ll go into the
candy thinking this will make me feel good.’’ (DL)
Post-emotional eating
To determine if emotional eating maintained or improved
mood, participants were asked how they felt after eating emotion-
ally. Some females commented on the overwhelming feeling of
guilt afterwards:
‘‘I tend to get more stressed out because I feel bad after eating.
After I eat a lot of food I do get stressed out more, but I still just
have those cravings.’’ (CK)
‘‘We’ll say why did we even eat that? We didn’t need that. No
one wants to eat bad food, we just do anyway.’’ (JN)
Males described post-emotional eating effects from the stand-
point of overconsumption of portion sizes with less feelings of guilt.
‘‘I realized I just ate ice cream and I wasn’t hungry anymore and
was like whoa, that’s a lot.’’ (HN)
‘‘I’m like ok, that’s enough of those cookies, I’m going to chill out
now.’’ (CB)
‘‘It’s a sense of stress at the end of that day, when I think about
what I’ve eaten all day.’’ (GS)
One male stated that feelings of sadness often encourage tem-
porary relief and then post-guilt. After having eating a calzone at
1 a.m., participant claimed he was:
‘‘Tired, hungry, I was anxious. I think I had an exam the next
day. I was up and couldn’t sleep. I was nervous. Then after-
wards, you feel relieved a little bit in a weird way. I don’t know
how to describe it. It’s not fulfilling, but you eat it and you don’t
feel good about yourself, you feel guilty.’’ (GS)
Development of emotional eating
Participants were asked when they first noticed their emotional
eating and how it developed over time since becoming college stu-
dents. Seven females and five males cited that emotional eating
developed in high school and then intensified in college or devel-
oped in college. Females cited both stress and increased access to
food as enablers to emotional eating:
‘‘Mostly in the past three years. Junior, senior [high school] and
going into college because it was the most stressful times prob-
ably. So I noticed that I started eating more. I feel like when I
was younger . . . I wasn’t so worried about what I was eating. I
didn’t stress it as much.’’ (CK)
‘‘Since college I think because I have the access to food more.’’ (NE)
Males were more likely to mention parents and the role they
played in maintaining healthy eating behaviors:
‘‘My parents made food before and I could just tell them to
make it, but now I have to make it.’’ (TC)
‘‘Throughout my high school I’ve always had good breakfasts
and meals throughout the day, but then in college I transferred
here, I’ve noticed I’ll have more snacks just because I’m in a
dorm. My mom isn’t cooking something.’’ (CB)
The remaining participants believed they always ate emotion-
ally or couldn’t remember when the behavior started.
Concerns about and efforts at reducing emotional eating
In response to the question of whether their emotional eating
bothered them, only one female (quoted below) and two males ex-
pressed concern:
‘‘Yeah, it really is something I’m trying to work on. I’m trying to
resist it, but sometimes I just can’t. So it is something I’m trying
to work on because I don’t think it’s healthy to overeat like
that.’’ (CK)
The remaining 13 participants were not bothered by their emo-
tional eating. One male in particular cited the summer as a time
when eating returned to normal because exams would be finished
and school out of session:
‘‘I feel once everything is done in two weeks and done, it will
return to normal during the summer.’’ (FJ)
Interestingly, all participants reported that only negative emo-
tions adversely affected their eating and when happy they ate
normally.
The majority of solutions cited by males and females to reduce
emotional eating included non-food activities such as watching
television, reading, talking with friends, exercise and use of the
computer. If a participant consumed a healthful food to satisfy
the urge to eat emotionally, the post-eating guilt was not as in-
tense. When asked what other methods would help cope with
emotional eating, participants cited general coping strategies such
as eliminating boredom and reducing stress. They were unable to
provide examples of how to manage these emotions as they were
more focused on immediate and temporary relief from the emotion
provided by eating unhealthful food.
Discussion
The present study explored emotional eating and compared
how male and female college students perceived their emotions
and eating behaviors influenced by these emotions. An unstruc-
tured interview guide was used to better understand the driving
factors behind emotional eating and potentially validate the WREQ
emotional eating construct. The college environment may be par-
ticularly obesogenic in terms of availability of all-you-can eat caf-
eterias, easy access to foods high in solid fats and added sugars
with limited access to nutrient dense foods, evening snacking,
and school/social demands that reduce perceived time available
for physical activity (Byrd-Bredbenner et al., 2012; Greaney, Less,
White, et al., 2009; Nelson & Story, 2009; Vella-Zarb & Elgar,
2009). Greene and colleagues found that college students scoring
high on an emotional eating assessment had higher BMIs than stu-
dents with lower emotional eating scores. Therefore, understand-
ing the meaning of emotional eating may be particularly
important in preventing weight gain during college that may lead
to adult obesity (Greene et al., 2011).
Range of emotions perceived by young adults
Both females and males frequently cited happiness and stress as
the two most commonly experienced emotions. As college
students, it is logical that the main source of stress cited by the
 J. Bennett et al. / Appetite 60 (2013) 187–192
participants was school-related (Greaney et al., 2009). In particular,
studying for exams, completing schoolwork and time management
were all cited as sources of stress. These results confirm previous
research about the transition to college (Rosen, Compas, & Tacy,
1993). Furthermore, a majority of participants were either first or
second year students, which could create challenges in identity
and role formation (Arnett, 2000). Stress has been described as
an intrapersonal barrier to maintaining a healthy weight in college
students (Greaney et al., 2009); results of this study confirm this
barrier for emotional eaters. Seven participants had BMIs greater
than 25 and were classified as overweight. Given that individuals
between 18 and 29 as well as emotional eaters are at risk for
weight gain (Blair et al., 1990; Lewis et al., 2000; Mokdad et al.,
1999), these emotional eaters are at risk for future weight gain
and becoming obese.
Emotions as influencing eating patterns
Stress affected both female and male eating behavior, but in an
opposite manner. Females increased their consumption when
stressed about school while males were more apt to decrease con-
sumption. For one female, she was cognizant of how she automat-
ically turned to chocolate for comfort. This may suggest, as past
studies have, that a decrease in healthful foods and an increase
in unhealthful foods (i.e. chocolate) during times of emotional
eating from stress (Kandiah et al., 2006; Laitinen et al., 2002).
Under more severe cases of stress females discussed the
distaste for food more so than males. The suppression of appetite
from intense emotions has been studied and confirmed previously
(Herman & Polivy, 1984; Macht, 2008). The loss of a loved one or
sickness of a close friend or family member decreased appetite
and subsequent intake.
Relationships between emotions and eating patterns
To investigate whether emotional eating improved mood, par-
ticipants responded to the question of how they felt after eating.
The sense of guilt amongst males and females was present. For fe-
males, eating with other females alleviated a negative mood, but
then resulted in feelings of guilt afterwards.
Only three participants were bothered by emotional eating and
wanted to change their behavior. Solutions cited to reduce emo-
tional eating mostly concerned traditional techniques such as dis-
tracting himself or herself by watching TV or going on the
computer. These alternative activities can be viewed as non-food
related attempts to cope with the emotional issue on hand, but
do not solve the underlying source of the emotion: stress manage-
ment. Participants were consciously aware of healthful food op-
tions as they frequently defined a healthy diet as balanced across
food groups consisting of fruits and vegetables. However, partici-
pants selected less healthful foods during emotional eating. There-
fore, it could be hypothesized that a traditional, balanced, caloric
deficit weight management program could be counterproductive
in emotional eaters. In this study, emotional eating trumped
healthy eating, resulting in participants consuming food they la-
beled as ‘‘bad’’ and likely to produce weight gain.
Participants frequently mentioned the pressure to eat from
friends. In social settings participants stated their hunger was min-
imal, yet they consumed food to avoid being hassled by friends.
Dieters have been observed to consume more in response to social
pressures than nondieters (Herman & Polivy, 1984). Participants in
the current study were aware they were eating for social reasons,
but made a conscious decision to avoid listening to their physiolog-
ical satiety signs. Since, the majority of the participants who cited
eating as a result of social pressures were first or second year stu-
dents, the need to form new friendships at the beginning of college
191
may be greater than those of third or fourth year students. The ef-
fects of social pressures may decrease over time.
Limitations
There are several limitations to this study. Given that partici-
pants were between 18 and 24 years old and white from a single
northeastern university, this study is not generalizable across dif-
ferent age groups, ethnicities, socio-economic statuses and geo-
graphic regions. The food journal meal documentation also
interfered with the generalizability of the study as asking the same
questions of a population through spontaneous interviews without
prior meditation could have resulted in different responses. The
instrument used to assess emotional eating, the WREQ, evaluates
negative emotional affect. If positive emotions were included as
part of the instrument, results could have been different than those
obtained. It is interesting, however that participants felt they could
eat normally when happy.
Use of the online survey as the only method of recruitment cre-
ated several limitations. Male participants in the survey scored an
average WREQ emotional eating construct of 8.1 ± 4.1 out of a pos-
sible score of 25 indicating a relatively low level of emotional eat-
ing and only those individuals who agreed to participate in other
research studies could be contacted. Recruitment was conducted
in classes that predominantly enroll first and second year students.
Therefore, the sample may have been more diverse if classes with
high enrollment of upper class students were used for recruitment.
Conclusion
The transition to college is a stressful period for both males and
females. Participants were educated about nutritious foods, but
emotional eating resulted in the consumption of unhealthful foods
with high caloric densities. How emotions are managed during
these formative years is critical for developing sustainable health-
ful eating behaviors. Coping with stress through eating was identi-
fied as a significant barrier towards healthy eating across genders.
At the same time, boredom was also cited as an emotional eating
enabler. This could be the result of undeveloped time management
skills. As one progresses from young adulthood to adulthood,
greater responsibilities and thus more stress could be expected
to occur. Therefore, a multidisciplinary intervention focusing on
time and stress management skills for college students should be
developed for those susceptible to emotional eating.
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