Military Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (MiCOR) Program, USU, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
The Metis Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Int J Eat Disord. 2024 Jul;57(7):1609-1615. doi: 10.1002/eat.24217. Epub 2024 Apr 11.
Adolescent children of US service members (i.e., military-dependent youth) face unique stressors that increase risk for various forms of disinhibited eating, including emotional eating. Difficulties with adaptively responding to stress and aversive emotions may play an important role in emotional eating. This study examined emotion dysregulation as a potential moderator of the association between perceived stress and emotional eating in adolescent military dependents.
Participants were military-dependent youth (N = 163, 57.7% female, M = 14.5 ± 1.6, M = 1.9 ± 0.4) at risk for adult binge-eating disorder and high weight enrolled in a randomized controlled prevention trial. Prior to intervention, participants completed questionnaires assessing perceived stress and emotional eating. Parents completed a questionnaire assessing their adolescent's emotion dysregulation. Moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and adjusted for theoretically relevant sociodemographic covariates.
The interaction between adolescent perceived stress and emotion dysregulation (parent-reported about the adolescent) in relation to adolescent emotional eating was found to be significant, such that higher emotion dysregulation magnified the association between perceived stress and emotional eating (p = .010). Examination of simple slopes indicated that associations between perceived stress and emotional eating were strongest for youth with above-average emotion dysregulation, and non-significant for youth with average or below-average emotion dysregulation.
Findings suggest that greater emotion dysregulation may increase risk for emotional eating in response to stress among military-dependent youth at risk for binge-eating disorder or high weight. Improving emotion regulation skills may be a useful target for eating disorder prevention among youth who are at risk for emotional eating.
Prior research has shown that adolescent military dependents are at increased risk for eating disorders and high weight. The current study found that emotion dysregulation moderated the relationship between perceived stress and emotional eating among military-dependent youth. There may be clinical utility in intervening on emotion regulation for adolescent dependents at particular risk for emotional eating and subsequent eating disorders.
美国军人的未成年子女（即军属子女）面临着独特的压力源，这些压力源增加了各种形式的脱抑制性进食的风险，包括情绪化进食。适应压力和厌恶情绪的困难可能在情绪化进食中发挥重要作用。本研究探讨了情绪失调作为感知压力与军属未成年子女情绪化进食之间关系的潜在调节因素。
参与者为有患成人暴食障碍和体重偏高风险的军属未成年子女（N=163，57.7%为女性，M=14.5±1.6，M=1.9±0.4），他们参加了一项随机对照预防试验。在干预之前，参与者完成了评估感知压力和情绪化进食的问卷。父母完成了一份评估其青少年情绪失调的问卷。使用 SPSS 中的 PROCESS 宏进行调节分析，并调整了理论上相关的社会人口学协变量。
发现青少年感知压力和情绪失调（父母报告的青少年情绪失调）之间的相互作用与青少年情绪化进食显著相关，即情绪失调程度越高，感知压力与情绪化进食之间的关联越强（p=0.010）。简单斜率检验表明，感知压力与情绪化进食之间的关联在情绪失调程度高于平均水平的青少年中最强，而在情绪失调程度平均或低于平均水平的青少年中则不显著。
研究结果表明，情绪失调程度较高可能会增加高危青少年对压力的情绪化进食反应的风险。改善情绪调节技能可能是高危青少年情绪进食和随后进食障碍预防的有效目标。
先前的研究表明，青少年军属面临着更高的饮食失调和体重偏高的风险。本研究发现，情绪失调调节了军属未成年子女感知压力与情绪化进食之间的关系。对于那些特别容易情绪化进食和随后出现饮食障碍的青少年依赖者，干预情绪调节可能具有临床意义。
