Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug:46:101654.
doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2022.101654. Epub 2022 Jul 19.

The associations among psychological distress, stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, and disinhibited eating of parents of three- to five-year-old children

Noelle K Herzog  1 , Adelyn Sherrard  2 , Tyler C Kemmerley  2 , Cin Cin Tan  3
Affiliations

The associations among psychological distress, stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, and disinhibited eating of parents of three- to five-year-old children

Noelle K Herzog et al. Eat Behav. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Individuals' psychological distress is associated with disinhibited eating (external and emotional eating). The aim of the current study was to examine the moderating associations of COVID-19-related stress on parents' psychological distress (anxiety, hostility, depression) and external and emotional eating. One hundred and sixty U.S. parents of three- to five-year-old children (Mage = 34.08, SD = 6.76; 89 females) completed an online survey. After accounting for participant characteristics (i.e., age, BMI, sex), regression analyses showed that COVID-19 stress moderated the effects of anxiety, hostility, and depression on external eating. Additionally, findings showed that COVID-19 stress moderated hostility (but not anxiety or depression) on emotional eating. These findings suggest that unexpected stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate disinhibited eating among those individuals who experience psychological distress. This presents support for providing interventions that focus on healthy coping strategies and family well-being, support groups, and community resources (e.g., financial assistance) to alleviate external pressures during unprecedented times.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Depression; Emotional eating; External eating; Hostility; Stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest in preparing this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Two-way linear interaction effects for anxiety, COVID-19 stress, and external eating (N = 160).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Two-way linear interaction effects for hostility, COVID-19 stress, and external eating (N = 160).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Two-way linear interaction effects for hostility, COVID-19 stress, and emotional eating (N = 160).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Two-way linear interaction effects for depression, COVID-19 stress, and external eating (N = 160).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Abdi H., Williams L.J. Principal component analysis. WIREs. Computational Statistics. 2010;2(4):433–459. doi: 10.1002/wics.101. - DOI
    1. Adawi M., Zerbetto R., Re T.S., Bisharat B., Mahamid M., Amital H., Del Puente G., Bragazzi N.L. Psychometric properties of the brief symptom inventory in nomophobic subjects: Insights from preliminary confirmatory factor, exploratory factor, and clustering analyses in a sample of healthy Italian volunteers. Psychology Research and Behavior Management. 2019;12:145–154. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S173282. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aksoy N.C., Kabadayi E.T., Alan A.K. An unintended consequence of Covid-19: Healthy nutrition. Appetite. 2021;166 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barrington W.E., Beresford S.A.A., McGregor B.A., White E. Perceived stress and eating behaviors by sex, obesity status, and stress vulnerability: Findings from the vitamins and lifestyle (VITAL) study. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2014;114(11):1791–1799. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2014.03.015. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berger R., Hänze M. Impact of expert teaching quality on novice academic performance in the jigsaw cooperative learning method. International Journal of Science Education. 2015;37(2):294–320.

Publication types