poster - The psychology of eating

Julia Reichenberger1,2, Adrian Meule1,2, & Jens Blechert1,2
1Department
of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria
²Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Austria
Presented at the 5. Congress of the German Society for Eating Disorders (3rd-5th March)
Development and preliminary validation of the
Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES)
Aim of the present study
Background
Develop a questionnaire that…
• measures solely stress-related eating behavior (independent of
emotion-related changes)
• acknowledges the fact that stress results in under- or overeating
in certain individuals
Validate the questionnaire with regard to…
• Reliability and a 1-factorial structure
• convergent and discriminant validity
• the relationship with body weight
• Stress disrupts normal eating patterns in several ways: It alters overall food
consumption, macronutrient composition and frequency of snacking/meals [1]
• Roughly equal numbers of individuals self-report eating more or eating less
when stressed [2][3][4]. Existing questionnaires assess only increased food
consumption in response to stress or emotions.
• Moreover, stress- and emotion-related items are often intermingled, although
they represent distinct constructs with distinguishable physiological
underpinnings and possibly also effects on eating behavior.
Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES)
Method
• Development
• Selection and adaptation of 4 items from the Perceived Stress Scale [PSS;
5] and 6 items from the Mood Eating Scale [6]
• 1 = “I eat much less than usual” – 5 = “I eat much more than usual”
• Mean scores are calculated and provide the possibility to form 3 groups:
less-eater (with low SSES scores), normal-eater and more-eater (with high
SSES scores)
• Validation
• 340 participants (77% female) recruited via student associations for
psychology all over Germany and Austria
• Measures: Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES), Dutch Eating Behavior
Questionnaire (DEBQ) emotional eating subscale [7], PSS [5], Barratt
Impulsiveness Scale [8], Eating Disorder Examination – Questionnaire [9],
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [10], Perceived
Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale [11]
esse ich
esse ich
esse ich
esse ich
esse ich
viel weniger
weniger
genauso viel
mehr
viel mehr
als sonst
als sonst
wie sonst
als sonst
als sonst
1
2
3
4
5
1. Wenn mich die Dinge, die ich erledigen muss zu erdrücken drohen, …
O
O
O
O
O
2. In sehr stressbelasteten Zeiten …
O
O
O
O
O
3. Wenn ich das Gefühl habe, dass mir die Dinge über den Kopf wachsen, …
O
O
O
O
O
4. An Tagen, an denen alles schiefzugehen scheint, …
O
O
O
O
O
5. Wenn ich mich auf eine anstrengende Aufgabe vorbereite, …
O
O
O
O
O
6. Wenn ich unter Druck stehe, …
O
O
O
O
O
7. Wenn ich mich nervös und gestresst fühle, ...
O
O
O
O
O
8. beeinflussen zu können, …
O
O
O
O
O
9. Wenn ich das Gefühl habe, nichts mehr wirklich im Griff zu haben, …
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Wenn ich das Gefühl habe, wichtige Dinge in meinem Leben nicht
Wenn ich das Gefühl habe, dass sich die Probleme so aufgestaut haben, dass
10. ich sie nicht mehr bewältigen kann, …
Results
Table 1.
Correlations
of the SSES
with several
measures.
Measures
r
Emotional Eating (DEBQ)
.516***
Eating Disorder Examination – Questionnaire
.298***
Perceived Stress Scale
.104
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale
.097
Barratt Impulsiveness Scale
.081
6
5
Raw data
Mean random data
4
Eigenvalue
• SSES M = 3.05 (SD = .071), Median = 3.00
• Psychometrics
• Internal consistency: Cronbach’s α = .89
• 1-factorial structure (see Fig. 1)
• Convergent validity: highly significant, positive correlations
between SSES and emotional eating / eating disorder
symptomology (see Tab. 1).
• Discriminant validity: non-significant correlations with
perceived stress, depressive symptoms and impulsivity (see
Tab. 1).
• Relationship with body weight: stress moderated the
relationship between stress-eating and BMI (see Fig. 2).
Percentile random data
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Factor
Figure 1. Scree-Plot and parallel analysis of
eigenvalues revealed a 1-factorial structure.
9
10
Figure 2. Simple slopes probing the interaction between
stress-eating and perceived stress when predicting body
mass index (BMI). Higher stress-eating scores were
related to BMI only at mean and high levels of stress.
References
Conclusion
• Individuals reported more eating as well as less eating when stressed.
• The SSES had very good internal consistency, a 1-factorial structure and
convergent/discriminant validity.
• Stress and stress-eating were not related per se, but moderating effects
occurred: Stress-eating only related into higher BMI in case of moderate or
high stress levels.
• The SSES is the first questionnaire solely measuring stress-related eating
behavior alterations (independent of emotions), acknowledging the fact that
individuals previously reported increased but also decreased eating in
response to stress and additionally allowing for unaltered (i.e. stress
uninfluenced) eating behavior.
• A clearer distinction between stress- and emotional-eating with regard to
questionnaires/items but also implications should be drawn in future research.
 Reliable and valid self-report measure to efficiently assess stress-eating
 SSES associated with BMI in habitually stressed individuals
[1] O’Connor, D.B., & Conner, M. (2011). Effects of stress on eating behavior. In R.J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.),
The Handbook of Stress Science (pp. 275-286). NY: Springer.
[2] Gibson, E.L. (2012). The psychobiology of comfort eating: implications for neuropharmacological
interventions. Behavioural Pharmacology, 23(5 and 6), 442-460.
[3] Oliver, G., & Wardle, J. (1999). Perceived effects of stress on food choice. Physiology & Behavior, 66(3), 511515.
[4] Zellner, D.A., Loaiza, S., Gonzalez, Z., Pita, J., Morales, J., Pecora, D., & Wolf, A. (2006). Food selection
changes under stress. Physiology & Behavior, 87(4), 789-793.
[5] Cohen, S., & Williamson, G.M. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In S.
Spacapan & S. Oskamp (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Health. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
[6] Jackson, L., & Hawkins, R.C. (1980, April). Stress-related overeating among college students: Development
of a mood eating scale, Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Southwestern Psychological
Association, Oklahoma City, OK.
[7] Grunert, S.C. (1989). Ein Inventar zur Erfassung von Selbstaussagen zum Ernährungsverhalten. Diagnostica,
35, 167-179.
[8] Meule, A., Vögele, C., & Kübler, A. (2011). Psychometrische Evaluation der deutschen Barratt Impulsiveness
Scale – Kurzversion (BIS-15). Diagnostica, 57, 126-133.
[9] Hilbert, A., Tuschen-Caffier, B., Karwautz, A., Niederhofer, H., & Munsch, S. (2007). Eating Disorder
Examination-Questionnaire – Evaluation der deutschsprachigen Übersetzung. Diagnostica, 53, 144-154.
[10] Hautzinger, M., Bailer, M., Hofmeister, D., & Keller, F. (2012). Allgemeine Depressionsskala. Göttingen:
Hogrefe.
[11] Meule, A., Papies, E.K., & Kübler, A. (2012). Differentiating between successful and unsuccessful dieters.
Validity and reliability of the Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale. Appetite, 58, 822-826.
*Contact: [email protected]