Mindfulness, depression, and emotional eating: The moderating role of nonjudging of inner experience.

Ti Hsu; Catherine A Forestell

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2020.105089

Mindfulness, depression, and emotional eating: The moderating role of nonjudging of inner experience.

Ti Hsu, Catherine A Forestell

Appetite December 26, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2020.105089 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Cross-sectional study Peer reviewed
Sample size	248
Population	Diverse community sample of adults
Measures	Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire
Topics	Anxiety Depression Meditation
Keywords	Humans Cross-sectional studies Emotions Emotional eating
Key findings	Depression significantly interacted with the mindfulness facet nonjudging of inner experience to predict emotional eating. Participants high in nonjudging endorsed less emotional eating than those average or low in nonjudging, and this difference was significant only at low levels of depression. The authors argue this delineates a moderating role for specific aspects of trait mindfulness.

Abstract

Emotional eating is defined as the tendency to increase food consumption in order to modify negative emotional states. Theories on emotional eating attribute its cause to inadequate emotion regulation, specifically an inability to draw awareness to and accept distress. Mindfulness, or the ability to pay attention to and accept internal and external experiences, is thought to attenuate the association between internalizing distress and emotional eating. Nevertheless, there has been little research examining the moderating role of mindfulness in the relationship between psychological distress and emotional eating. The present study used a cross-sectional design to probe the effects of specific facets of mindfulness, as measured by the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire, on the relationship between internalizing distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) and emotional eating in a diverse community sample (N = 248). Results showed that depression significantly interacted with nonjudging of inner experience to predict emotional eating. Those who were high in nonjudging endorsed less emotional eating than those who were average or low in nonjudging. This was significant only at low levels of depression. These findings delineate the moderating role of specific aspects of trait mindfulness in the association between depression and emotional eating and may inform more targeted intervention and prevention efforts.

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