The Relationship between Psychological Distress during the Second Wave Lockdown of COVID-19 and Emotional Eating in Italian Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Emotional Dysregulation.

Anna Guerrini Usubini,Giada Pietrabissa,Tommaso Manari,Christian Franceschini,Emanuele Maria Giusti,Alessandro Musetti,Gianluca Castelnuovo,Enrico Molinari,Maria Filosa,Giorgia Varallo,Roberto Cattivelli

doi:10.3390/jpm11060569

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the impact of psychological distress experienced during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on emotional eating and to assess the mediating role of emotional dysregulation in a sample of Italian young adults (20–35). A total of 437 participants provided demographical data and were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Emotional Eating subscale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Correlational analyses were performed to assess the relationship between continuous variables, while ANOVA was conducted to detect differences between males and females for emotional eating. To assess whether demographic and clinical data predicted emotional eating, hierarchical linear regression was performed. Then, a mediation analysis was conducted to assess whether emotional dysregulation was a mediator between psychological distress and emotional eating. Emotional eating was associated with psychological distress and emotional dysregulation. Moreover, higher levels of emotional eating were found in females than in males. Predictors of emotional eating were sex, psychological distress, and emotional dysregulation. Mediation analyses showed that the indirect effect of psychological distress on emotional eating through emotional dysregulation was significant (b = 0.0069; SE = 0.0024; CI = 0.0024–0.0118), confirming that the relationship between psychological distress and emotional eating was mediated by emotional dysregulation, controlling for sex. The model explained 26.8% (R2 = 0.2680) of the variance. These findings may help to plan and develop psychological interventions aimed at addressing emotional eating in young adults by targeting emotional dysregulation.

Highlights

This article is an open access articleCoronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), a new form of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was firstly identified in Wuhan City (China) in December2019
Others, Italian young adults were seriously harmed by the COVID-19 outbreak
[11], with an Italian young adults were seriously harmed by the COVID-19 outbreak [11], with an inincrease both internalizing and externalizing problemsduring duringthe thefirst firstlockdown

Summary

Introduction

This article is an open access articleCoronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), a new form of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was firstly identified in Wuhan City (China) in December2019. COVID-19 has rapidly spread throughout China and has quickly become a global health concern. After China, Italy was one of the first countries in which COVID-19 spread. Few months the number of cases grew exponentially. Facing an increasing number of cases, the Italian government has implemented extraordinary preventive measures based on social distancing, limitation of movement and physical interaction, and unprecedented quarantine measures. Citizens were asked to isolate themselves and were not allowed to leave their homes except for well-documented reasons. Non-essential activities and schools were closed, and most workers were restricted to working from home or stopping work. On 11 March 2020, Italy was locked down.

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