ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The Impact of Adult attachment on Food Craving Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Emotional Regulation Difficulties

  • WANG Yuanyuan ,
  • BAI Yu ,
  • TANG Shiyu ,
  • ZHANG Donglai ,
  • WU Mudan
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  • 1School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China;
    2Shanghai Anding Hospital, Shanghai 200433, China;
    3Shanghai Normal University Affiliated Songjiang Experimental School, Shanghai 201699, China
*WU Mudan, wmd@shnu.edu.cn

Online published: 2024-06-06

Abstract

Objective: To explore the relationship between adult attachment and food craving in college students, and to investigate the mediating role of emotional regulation difficulties.
Methods: Using the method of convenience sampling, 682 college students were investigated by the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS), the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS), and the General Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (GFCQ-T). Among them, there are 194 male students (28.4%) and 488 female students (71.6%), with an average age of 21.2(2.3) years old. The collected data were analyzed by correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect test.
Results: (1) The attachment anxiety of college students was significantly positively correlated with the total score of food craving traits and emotional regulation difficulties; (2) there was a significant negative correlation between attachment avoidance and the expected dimension of food craving traits, and a significant negative correlation between the total score of emotional regulation difficulties; (3) the total score of emotional regulation difficulty was significantly positively correlated with food craving traits; (4) emotional regulation difficulties play a complete mediating role between attachment anxiety and food craving traits, with the mediating effect accounting for 61.4% of the total effect, and a 95% confidence interval of [0.28, 0.58] for the mediating effect. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for developing intervention strategies to reduce food craving from the perspective of emotional regulation.
Conclusion: The higher the level of attachment anxiety among college students, the higher the level of emotional regulation difficulty. Attachment anxiety indirectly affects food craving through emotional regulation difficulty.

Cite this article

WANG Yuanyuan , BAI Yu , TANG Shiyu , ZHANG Donglai , WU Mudan . The Impact of Adult attachment on Food Craving Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Emotional Regulation Difficulties[J]. Psychological Communications, 2023 , 6(3) : 138 -144 . DOI: 10.12100/j.issn.2096-5494.223022

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[30] [Psychological Communications, 2023, 6(3): 138-144 doi: 10.12100/j.issn.2096-5494.223022]
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