The role of rumination and the sadness emotion management skills in predicting emotional eating behavior of 9-12 year-old children with obesity and overweight

Emotional eating behavior is considered one of the pathological eating behaviors, and the components related to it have special importance, especially in children and adolescents.

The aim of the research was to investigate the role of rumination and sadness emotion management skills in predicting emotional eating behavior in overweight and obese children aged 9 to 12 years.

The descriptive research design was of the correlational type and the statistical population included obese and overweight children aged 9 to 12 in Hamedan City in 2019-2020. A total of 268 of these children were selected by convenient sampling method and responded to questionnaires of children’s responses to imaginal situations that Elicit Sadness (Lopez, 2006), Children’s Sadness Management Scale (Shipman and Penza-Clive, 2001), Emotional Eating Scale-Children (Tanfoski, 2007). To analyze the data, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used with the help of SPSS-22.

The results of correlation analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between rumination variable and emotion regulation management skills with children's emotional eating behavior (P<0.05). Also, based on the regression results, 45.4% and 53% of the variance of the variable of emotional eating behavior could be predicted with the help of the predictor variables dimensions of rumination and emotion regulation management skills (P<0.05).

The results indicated that there is a significant relationship between emotional eating behavior with rumination and ineffective strategies for managing the emotion of sadness in obese and overweight children. In order to prevent and treat obesity and overweight in children, it is important to pay attention to their psychological issues. It is suggested that more research be done, in the field of psychological causes of problems related to obesity and overweight.