The Correlation between Social Media Addiction and Emotional Eating during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period

Ecol Food Nutr. 2023 Jan-Feb;62(1-2):60-74. doi: 10.1080/03670244.2023.2179044. Epub 2023 Feb 19.

Abstract

This study was conducted with 458 participants. The demographic and health information of the participants along with the Social Media Addiction, Emotional Eating Scale were obtained. The level of social media addiction in adults was moderate, and women were more interested in social media than men. As the average age of participants increased, the virtual tolerance, virtual communication, social media scores decreased (p < .05). The study found that 51.6% of individuals with emotional eating tendencies happened to be obese. The social media addiction scale scores of those with emotional eating tendencies were higher than those without emotional eating tendencies (p < .05).

Keywords: Social media addiction; emotional eating; nutrition; quarantine.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • COVID-19* / prevention & control
  • COVID-19* / psychology
  • Emotions
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders* / epidemiology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders* / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internet Addiction Disorder* / epidemiology
  • Internet Addiction Disorder* / psychology
  • Male
  • Obesity* / epidemiology
  • Obesity* / psychology
  • Quarantine* / psychology
  • Quarantine* / statistics & numerical data