Abstract

Stress eating can be described as eating for pleasure, though some might claim they are eating to avoid pain in some form. This type of uncontrolled caloric consumption can potentially lead to serious health problems in the future, both physiologically and psychologically. There were (n=15) participants for this study. The ages range from 18 to 56 years old, with (n=3) males and (n=12) twelve females. This study investigated events that may trigger an individual to eat when they are not physically hungry and whether individuals tend to use eating as a coping mechanism. Portions of the Emotional Eating Scale and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire were utilized in conjunction with independently created items aimed at identifying stressors, which created 20 Likert scale questions for the participants to answer. The results suggest heightened levels of stress may lead to increased consumption. Eustress and distress, as well as age, did not have a significant impact on food consumption.

Keywords: ​ stress, eating, emotional, binge, distress, gender, ethnicity, cultural diversity, minority (Keywords).