title: Perceived hunger mediates the relationship between attachment anxiety and emotional eating.
abstract: Eating is an inherently emotional activity and the attachment system is an emotion regulation system. Individuals with attachment insecurity have less interoceptive awareness and difficulty regulating emotion. Insecurely attached individuals may eat emotionally because they misinterpret internal hunger cues, (i.e. think they are hungry when they are experiencing some other internal, attachment-related state). The current study found a positive association between attachment anxiety and emotional eating. This relationship was mediated by perceived hunger.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Department of Psychology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. kleesha@psychology.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: Harold I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Siegel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D010465:Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attachment anxiety; Attachment theory; Eating; Emotion regulation; Emotional eating; Perceived hunger