Adolescent Disordered Eating: Intersections of Food Insecurity, Stress, and Emotional Eating Patterns

Abstract

Disordered eating is linked to various environmental and psychological factors, including food insecurity, stress, and emotional eating. This study investigates the associations among disordered eating, food insecurity, perceived stress, and emotional eating in adolescents, specifically focusing on parent-reported and adolescent-perceived food insecurity differences. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of food insecurity, perceived stress, and emotional eating on disordered eating. The study also investigates potential interactions between stress, food insecurity, and emotional eating. 118 adolescents (11-14 years old) from low to moderate-income households participated in the University at Buffalo Eating Among Teens Study (UB-EATS), a 2-year prospective observational cohort study. Food insecurity status was analyzed through adolescent and parent/guardian survey responses. Disordered eating was measured by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and emotional eating was assessed using the Emotional Eating Scale (EES-C). General linear models (GLM) and linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationships among emotional eating, disordered eating, perceived stress, and food insecurity with variables such as BMI percentile, age, and sex, included as covariates. Adolescent-reported food insecurity, but not parent-reported food insecurity, was significantly associated with perceived stress, emotional eating, and disordered eating. Emotional eating was strongly associated with disordered eating, with stress moderating this relationship. These findings underscore the importance of addressing adolescent-perceived food insecurity and stress in interventions targeting disordered eating.

Keywords: food insecurity, perceived stress, Emotional Eating, Eating behavior, Adolescents, eating disorder risk