Interoceptive awareness and emotional eating in college women: the role of appetite and emotional awareness

Objective: Emotional eating is prevalent among college women. Deficits in interoceptive awareness, or the ability to perceive and identify internal sensations, are associated with emotional eating. Separately examining the specific components of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, in relation to emotional eating may improve prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women. Participants: 143 women at an urban Northeastern university. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using self-report measures of interoceptive awareness, appetite and emotional awareness, emotional eating, and depression. Simultaneous regression analyses examined the independent association of appetite and emotional awareness with emotional eating, controlling for depression. Results: Consistent with hypotheses, lower interoceptive awareness was associated with higher emotional eating. Appetite and emotional awareness, were each uniquely associated with emotional eating independent of depression, even when entered simultaneously. Conclusions: Future prevention and treatment of emotional eating in college women should target improvements in appetite and emotional awareness.