Abstract
The concept of Emotional Eating (EE) is increasingly considered to be implicated in overeating and obesity, and in different subtypes of eating disorders. Among the self-report questionnaires assessing EE, the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ) includes recent advances in this area: it evaluates a broad range of emotions and situations both positive and negative, and the way they modulate food intake (decrease, stability, or increase). The main objective of our study was to further investigate the psychometric properties of the French version of the EMAQ in a large sample of students. Participants completed the EMAQ (n = 679), the DEBQ (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire) (n = 75) and the CIDI-eating disorders screening (Composite International Diagnostic Interview) (n = 604). Factorial structure, reliability, and validity of the EMAQ were tested. Factorial analyses supported a two-factor (Positive and Negative) structure. The internal consistency indices were satisfactory and results suggest good test–retest reliability for the scale. Convergent and discriminant validity were confirmed from the significant correlations observed between the EMAQ scores and the DEBQ-EE subscale scores. Regarding associations with weight, whereas EMAQ negative scores were positively correlated with BMI, EMAQ positive scores were negatively correlated with BMI. Finally, EMAQ scores differed significantly depending on gender and risk for bulimia nervosa. This study supports the validity and the reliability of the EMAQ, which appears to be a promising instrument to better understand individual differences that could modulate food intake.
Highlights
Food consumption is considered an important mood regulating behavior (Heatherton and Baumeister, 1991; Polivy and Herman, 1993; Greeno and Wing, 1994; Macht, 1999, 2008)
Some individuals appear to be more susceptible to unhealthy shifts in food choices in order to cope with negative emotions (Oliver et al, 2000; NguyenMichel et al, 2007; Macht, 2008; van Strien et al, 2012)
While few people report not changing their eating behaviors during stressful periods, there seem to be as many people who eat more as individuals who eat less (40–70% would present this typical distress response). This disparity in either overeating or under-eating in the general population has been observed in clinical samples, and recent studies suggest that, besides obesity, Emotional Eating (EE) could be involved in the entire spectrum of eating disorders: in binge eating episodes as in bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge eating disorder, and in binge-purging and restrictive anorexia nervosa (Ricca et al, 2009, 2012)
Summary
Food consumption is considered an important mood regulating behavior (Heatherton and Baumeister, 1991; Polivy and Herman, 1993; Greeno and Wing, 1994; Macht, 1999, 2008). While few people report not changing their eating behaviors during stressful periods, there seem to be as many people who eat more (around 30–50% would present this a-typical stress response) as individuals who eat less (40–70% would present this typical distress response) (see Gibson, 2012) This disparity in either overeating or under-eating in the general population has been observed in clinical samples, and recent studies suggest that, besides obesity, EE could be involved in the entire spectrum of eating disorders: in binge eating episodes as in bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge eating disorder, and in binge-purging and restrictive anorexia nervosa (Ricca et al, 2009, 2012). Recent studies suggest that eating in response to negative and to positive emotions could refer to different constructs (van Strien et al, 2013) and that only the desire to eat in response to negative emotions would be an ‘obese’ eating style (van Strien et al, 2016)
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