A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY ON EMOTIONAL EATING EXPERIENCES OF ADOLESCENTS

Date

2024-5

Author

Yılmaztürk, Nergis Hazal

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The present qualitative study aims to examine the phenomenon of emotional eating from adolescents' perspective and explore their experiences regarding predisposing factors, processes, and post-emotional eating in the light of developmental and cognitive models of food choice. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews with 10 adolescent-mother dyads, and food diaries kept by adolescents were used to collect data for an in-depth understanding of the emotional eating phenomenon. Results of the Reflexive Thematic Analysis revealed that emotional eating mainly clustered among three overarching themes of predisposing dimensions, the process of emotional eating, and post–emotional eating. Predisposing dimensions consisted of two main themes, individualized and environmental factors. Regarding them, the role of affective, cognitive, and physiological domains that contribute to adolescents' emotional eating for the first theme, and the influence of early experiences with food, familial eating patterns, and the role of technological enhancements for the latter. The second overarching theme, the process of emotional eating, comprised of certain characteristics of emotional eating and the compatibility of adolescents' eating patterns with them. Lastly, themes of post-prandial emotions, social consequences such as peer comparison and bullying, and body-related aftermath stemmed from the overarching theme of post-emotional eating. Findings showed that emotional eating is associated with both negative and positive emotional valence, and food-induced socialization patterns are essential to emotional eating via learning. Albeit providing short-term relief, the consequences of emotional eating mostly bring negative outcomes such as regret and body dissatisfaction throughout social comparison. Practical implications and future research suggestions were discussed considering the findings.

Subject Keywords

Emotional eating, adolescence, phenomenological approach

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/109767

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis