Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
Int J Eat Disord. 2022 Jul;55(7):966-976. doi: 10.1002/eat.23723. Epub 2022 Apr 30.
Negative affect intensity is robustly related to binge eating, but the relationship between negative emotion differentiation (i.e., the ability to differentiate negatively-valenced emotions) and binge eating is unclear. Further, little is known about factors that might reduce emotion intensity and/or enhance emotion differentiation, thereby reducing binge eating. Self-compassion is consistently linked to less binge eating, which may be due to decreased negative affect and/or an enhanced ability to differentiate emotions. The current study examined the roles of negative emotion intensity, negative emotion differentiation, and self-compassion in binge eating using ecological momentary assessment.
Participants were 201 university students (52.2% female) who completed questionnaires assessing affect seven times a day, and engagement in loss of control (LOC) eating episodes at the end of each day, for 10 days. The average of sadness, fear, guilt, and hostility subscales represented negative emotion intensity; intraclass correlations across negative affect subscales defined negative emotion differentiation. Both daily (i.e., within-person) and trait (i.e., between-person) emotion variables were examined as predictors.
Between-person negative emotion intensity, but not negative emotion differentiation, significantly predicted LOC eating occurrence. Self-compassion had a significant effect on LOC eating frequency, and this relationship was partially mediated via negative emotion intensity, but not via negative emotion differentiation.
Lower levels of negative emotion intensity partially account for the relationship between greater self-compassion and less frequent LOC eating. These findings highlight the importance of cultivating self-compassion to down-regulate negative emotions and to reduce LOC eating.
Our findings suggest that university students who approach their limitations compassionately experience fewer negative emotions in daily life and engage in less loss of control eating. Lower levels of negative affect partially explain this relationship between self-compassion and loss of control eating. These results highlight the importance of cultivating an understanding and a compassionate attitude toward oneself for reducing eating pathology.
负性情绪强度与暴食行为密切相关，但负性情绪分化（即区分负性情绪的能力）与暴食行为的关系尚不清楚。此外，人们对可能降低情绪强度和/或增强情绪分化从而减少暴食行为的因素知之甚少。自我同情与较少的暴食行为有关，这可能是由于负性情绪减少和/或情绪区分能力增强。本研究使用生态瞬时评估法考察了负性情绪强度、负性情绪分化和自我同情在暴食行为中的作用。
参与者为 201 名大学生（女性占 52.2%），他们在 10 天内每天完成 7 次评估情绪的问卷，并在每天结束时评估是否发生了失控（LOC）进食。悲伤、恐惧、内疚和敌意子量表的平均值代表负性情绪强度；负性情绪子量表的组内相关系数定义了负性情绪分化。每日（即个体内）和特质（即个体间）情绪变量均作为预测因子进行检验。
个体间负性情绪强度而非负性情绪分化显著预测了 LOC 进食的发生。自我同情对 LOC 进食频率有显著影响，这种关系部分通过负性情绪强度，而不是负性情绪分化来介导。
较低的负性情绪强度部分解释了自我同情与较少的 LOC 进食之间的关系。这些发现强调了培养自我同情以调节负性情绪和减少 LOC 进食的重要性。
我们的研究结果表明，以同情心对待自身局限性的大学生在日常生活中体验到的负性情绪较少，并且不会出现失控性进食。较低的负性情绪在一定程度上解释了自我同情与失控性进食之间的关系。这些结果强调了培养对自我的理解和同情心对于减少进食障碍的重要性。
