Emotion Dysregulation, Self-Control, and Food Addiction among Female Adolescents

Abstract

Food addiction is an emerging concern among adolescents, often linked to difficulties in regulating emotions and maintaining self-control. The present study aimed to investigate the role of emotional dysregulation and self-control in predicting food addiction among female adolescents. A sample 223 adolescents, aged 13 to 19 years were recruited from urban and rural areas of Faisalabad district through purposive sampling. Participants completed the Brief Scale for Detection of Emotional Dysregulation Risk, the Brief Self-Control Scale, and Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale. The correlation analysis revealed that emotion dysregulation was positively significantly associated with food addiction and negatively significantly associated with self-control. While, self-control also confirmed significant negative relation with food addiction The results of multiple regression analysis found that emotion dysregulation was significantly positively predict food addiction and self-control was significantly positively predict food addiction among females adolescents. These findings highlight the crucial role of emotion regulation and self-control in adolescents' eating behaviors and suggest that preventive interventions should focus on strengthening these psychological resources to mitigate the risk of food addiction.