Life events, emotional eating and change in body mass index.

The results are reported of a longitudinal study on effects of negative life events on change in body mass index (BMI; weight/height2 (kg/m2)) in men and women classified as either low or high emotional eaters. It was predicted that emotional eating and negative life events would have an interaction effect on change in BMI. Low emotional eaters would gain less weight and high emotional eaters would gain more weight after experiencing negative life events, than those who had not experienced such events. For men, emotional eating and negative life events were found to have a significant interaction effect on change in BMI 6 months after the assessment of life events on the first, but not on the second assessment date in the same study. Data on the long-term effects of negative life events indicate that the significant interaction effect found was not an artefact. For women, no such interaction effects were found. Thus, it is concluded that the hypothesis was confirmed to some extent in the men, but not in the women.