Daily hassles and emotional eating in obese adolescents under restricted dietary conditions—The role of ruminative thinking

Emotional eating is conceptualized as eating in response to negative affect or distress and is discussed as a mechanism leading to eating binges. Recent evidence suggests that eating may not only be triggered by negative affect, but also ruminative thinking. We report results of an experience sampling study examining the role of rumination for emotional eating in 16 obese adolescents (M = 15.5 years, S.D. = 1.4; range 14–17, body mass index M = 31.1 kg m−2, S.D. = 5.5) under restricted dietary conditions. We hypothesized that daily hassles type of stress predicted the individuals’ desire to eat, with the predictive value further increased when negative affect and rumination were accounted for. The results of mixed regression modeling were in line with our predictions, suggesting a significant contribution of ruminative thinking to the mechanisms of negative affect induced eating.