Effects of Emotional Eating on Eating Behaviors Disorder in Students: the Effects of Anxious Mood and Emotion Expression

Introduction: there is a long-term interest in the effects of undesirable emotions to eating behaviors, due to the strain that it places on a person which can lead to loses his/her health. the present study examined the degree of disordered eating behaviors related to anxiety and alexithymia among high schools girls.materials and methods: this cross-sectional study on 344 girl students of tehran’s high schools, who were selected by multiple cluster sampling, was conducted. participants responded to the questionnaires of anxiety of costello and comrey (1967), twenty-item toronto alexithymia and disordered eating behaviors of garner and colleagues (1982). the data were analyzed by regression and correlation techniques.results: results showed that there was significant positive correlation among anxiety, alexithymia and disordered eating behaviors (p < 0.01). in stepwise regression analysis, anxiety and alexithymia significantly predicted, respectively, 35% and 22% of the variance of disordered eating behaviors (p < 0.01).conclusion: anxious mood and emotions expression can influence on eating behaviors. therefore, considering these variables can be important to prevent the development of eating-related diseases and to promote girls health.