Objective: Low emotional intelligence and symptoms of disordered eating are connected, however, whether daily fluctuations in emotional intelligence predict daily changes in disordered eating symptoms has not been examined, nor has stress been explored as a potential moderator of this relationship. Participants: Participants were undergraduate students (n = 100). Methods: Participants completed baseline questionnaires, then responded to random ecological momentary assessment prompts 3 times daily for 2 weeks. Results: Results indicated that when individuals had higher momentary emotional intelligence, they had lower disordered eating at the same time point (within subjects estimate = -0.30, p < .001) and following time point (within subjects estimate = -0.08, p = 0.03). Momentary stress moderated the relationship between baseline emotional intelligence and momentary disordered eating (b = -0.02, p < .01). Conclusions: Changes in emotional intelligence predict day-to-day changes in disordered eating, and stress moderates the connection between emotional intelligence and disordered eating.
Keywords: Disordered eating; eating disorders; ecological momentary assessment; emotional intelligence; stress.