2. Introduction
● Obesity has been on the rise in the U.S., one habit that has been shown
to lead to obesity is stress-eating
● The relationship between stress and increased eating has been
established in previous research
● College students are at increased risk to develop stress-eating habits,
because they deal with extreme stress levels
● Students just entering college have more disrupted eating habits than
do students who have been in college longer
● We hypothesized that teaching students about the relationship between
stress-eating and providing them with stress reducing breathing
techniques would reduce their likelihood to stress-eat.
3. Method
Participants:
● 20 Grinnell College Introduction to Psychology Students recruited through
PSELL board. The only statistically significant demographic difference
between the experimental and control groups was age. The experimental
group had a higher mean age than the control group. The other
demographic factors did not pose statistically significant differences
between groups.
Procedure:
● The participants attended three meetings. At the first meeting they were
randomly placed in either the experimental group or control group. They
were also asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, the Emotional
Eating Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale.
4. Method
● At the first meeting both groups of participants were also given a daily
diary consisting of two questionnaires, variations of the Binge Eating
Scale and the Eating Disorder Inventory to complete at the end of each
day for one week.
● At the second meeting the experimental group was presented with an
educational session about the relationship between stress and eating, a
stress relieving breathing technique, and healthy nutrition. They were
also turned in their diary from the first week and received a second
which now included a food log along with the previous questions.
5. Method
● At the control group’s second meeting they dropped off their diaries and
picked up one identical to that which they had filled out the week before
to fill out for the second week of the study.
● At the third and final meeting both groups dropped off their second
week diaries and completed the Emotional Eating Scale and the
Perceived Stress Scale.
6. Results
● There was not a significant difference (using p<.05).between the control
and the experimental group for the change in stress gauged by the
Perceived Stress Scale (t(17)= -.37, p<.72) and the Daily Inventory of
Stress (t(17)=.87, p<2.96).
● There was also not a significant difference (using p<.05) between the
control and the experimental group for the change in stress-eating as
gauged by the Emotional Eating Scale (t(17)= -1.201, p<4.40) and the
questionnaire comprised of the Binge Eating Scale and the Eating
Disorder Inventory (t(17)=-.017, p<.99).
7. Discussion
● We did not have a successful intervention but our hypothesis was not
exactly unsupported.
● Strengths: We had high adherence to completion of the diaries and we also
had decent follow through for the entirety of the study.
● Weaknesses: The intervention was not in depth enough, it could have had
more structure. Also all of our information was subjective.
● There is enough research on this topic that there should be more education
about stress and stress reduction among college age individuals.
● Future research should focus on in depth interventions rather than just
proving that the connection between stress, stress reduction, and stress-
eating exists.
