Emotional eating and its effect on eating behaviour after a natural disaster.

ABSTRACT

Emotional eaters are hypothesised to overeat in response to negative emotions or stress. However, the empirical evidence for such a moderating role is mixed. This study examined the effect of emotional eating on eating behaviour before and after the occurrence of a natural disaster (an earthquake) in a sample of predominantly middle-aged and older women. As expected, women who scored high on emotional eating reported an increase in overeating after the earthquake. This effect was qualified by an interaction emotional eaters who reported high levels of post-earthquake distress reported an increase in overeating, whereas non-stressed emotional eaters and non-emotional eaters did not.