How Coping Styles Impact Emotional Eating in College Students

The college experience for the typical American student has two major components: stress and eating, which tend to work in tandem. However, despite the prevalence and impact of this relationship, relatively few studies have been published exploring the manifestation of stress on eating habits in college students. More specifically, can specific coping styles predict emotional eating behavior? To assess this, approximately 200 undergraduate students were evaluated on dimensions of coping styles, eating habits, and height and weight. Through correlations, regression analyses, and ANOVAs, it was found that depressive and anxious states were associated with avoidance coping, a lower BMI suggested more self-controlling coping, and that negative states could be predicted with other variables.