Boredom proneness and rumination interactively mediate the effect of negative urgency on emotional eating

Abstract

Background: Emotional eating (EE) has been found to be provoked by negative urgency (NU, tendency to act rashly when distressed) and the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, like rumination. Another risk factor for emotional eating is the experience of boredom, which simultaneously facilitates rumination. The aim of the study was to explore the interplay of these factors: We assessed mediating effects of rumination in the relationship between EE and NU. Further, we tested whether this mediation is moderated by individual degrees of boredom proneness. Method: A total of 456 subjects (74% f; age: M=33.8; SD=12.1; 19