title: Negative emotions and emotional eating: the mediating role of experiential avoidance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Emotional eating is a risk factor for eating pathology across the life- and weight-span. Research demonstrates that negative emotions are a precipitant of emotional eating, particularly among female college students. However, the underlying factors that explain this relationship are unclear. Experiential avoidance, a propensity toward being unwilling to remain in contact with aversive private experiences, may explain the association between negative emotions and emotional eating. The purpose of this study was to examine whether experiential avoidance would mediate the association between negative emotions and emotional eating.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 132 women (17.4 % African American, 59.8 % White) completed measures of mood, experiential avoidance and emotional eating. Bias-corrected bootstrapping mediational analyses were conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Experiential avoidance mediated the relationship between negative emotions and emotional eating b = -0.21, 95 % BC CI [-0.43, -0.07]. The indirect effect through experiential avoidance accounted for 9 % of the variance, which represents a medium effect (k2= 0.09, 95 % BC CI [0.03, 0.18]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that experiential avoidance is important for understanding the relationship between negative emotions and emotional eating and may inform potential strategies for prevention and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19141-1199, USA.|CBT Westport, LLC, 1720 Post Road East, Suite 223, Westport, CT, 06880, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Litwin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19141-1199, USA. goldbacher@lasalle.edu.
authors.forename: Edie M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Goldbacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19141-1199, USA.
authors.forename: LeeAnn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardaciotto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19141-1199, USA.|Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling, Appalachian State University, 314B College of Education, Boone, NC, 28608, USA.
authors.forename: Laura Eubanks
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Gambrel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotional eating; Experiential avoidance; Negative emotions