Depression and maladaptive eating practices in college students.

Abstract

University students (n = 234) enrolled in sections of a required undergraduate course were administered the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale and the Maladaptive Eating Behavior (MEB) Scale to determine if selected maladaptive eating practices correlated with depressive symptoms. Stepwise multiple regression on data from female subjects (n = 138) revealed that four eating practices related to depression, and produced a multiple R = .68, accounting for 46.2% of the variance. Maladaptive eating practices were not predictive of depression among males (n = 96) with "feeling uncomfortable eating in the presence of others" the only significantly correlated variable. This study confirms previous research that has found an association between maladaptive eating practices and depressed mood in nonclinical samples of university students.