Beliefs about Negative Emotions and Emotional Eating: The Role of Rumination and Body Mass Index

Abstract

BACKGROUND Emotion beliefs are cognitive processes that influence how emotions are regulated, with important implications for well-being. Maladaptive beliefs about emotions may associated with the use of less adaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as rumination, and may contribute dysfunctional eating behaviors. This study examines the relationship between beliefs about the uncontrollability and uselessness of negative emotions and emotional eating (EE), with a focus on the mediating role of rumination. We also tested an exploratory hypothesis examining whether body mass index (BMI) moderates the pathways from emotion beliefs and rumination to EE. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE After obtaining ethical approval, participants were cruited from the general population through announcements on social media platforms. The sample consisted 414 adults (Mage = 32.5, SD = 11.4) from Turkey who completed online self-report questionnaires. RESULTS Our results showed that stronger beliefs that negative emotions are uncontrollable or useless were associated with greater EE indirectly through their effects on rumination, after statistically controlling for gender. In the moderated mediation analyses, BMI significantly moderated the pathway from rumination to EE, with stronger associations observed in individuals with higher BMI. However, BMI did not moderate the associations between emotion beliefs and EE. CONCLUSIONS These findings underscore the significance of targeting emotion beliefs and rumination in interventions for EE and suggest the potential benefit of tailoring interventions based on the needs of individuals with different BMI levels.