Unhealthy eating and academic stress: the moderating effect of eating style and BMI

Introduction. Many studies have shown that stress can affect health not only through direct physiological processes but also by altering behaviors that affect health, including the dietary patterns. Moreover, the moderating effects of body mass index (BMI) and eating style on the relationship between stressors and unhealthy eating were examined. Due to the high levels of stress that university students are exposed to, they represent a population that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of stress on health behaviors. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between academic stress and unhealthy eating among undergraduate students and the moderating effects of BMI and eating style. Method. In this study, 574 students from seven Campania universities completed an online self-report questionnaire, which included measures of academic stress, emotional and restrained eating, BMI and three aspects of dietary practice (junk food, sweet food and snack consumption). We conducted t-tests to examine the differences in participants’ characteristics by BMI and correlation analyses to test the associations between variables. Then, multiple hierarchical regressions were performed to examine the direct and moderation effects of psychological variables and BMI on unhealthy eating. Results. Results showed that academic stress is positively related to unhealthy eating. In addition, we found that emotional eating and BMI moderate the impact of academic stress on sweet food and snack consumption respectively. Conclusions. The results indicated a significant relationship between academic stress and unhealthy food consumption, showing how emotional eating and BMI can moderate this relationship. These results can be useful for the planning of interventions aiming to reduce stress and unhealthy eating among undergraduate students.