In order to explain the present research’s reasoning for including the variables of coping and depression in its hypothesised model, the following sections focus on outlining the concepts of coping and depression, together with establishing the link between each of these constructs and the engagement in disordered eating behaviours. Each of these concepts will be discussed separately.
4.1. The link between Coping and BED
As it was stressed throughout the paper, individuals with BED tend to display higher levels of negative emotionality when compared to individuals without BED, which is why it is argued that they are more likely to compensate for their negative emotionality by engaging in overeating behaviours (Arnow et al., 1995; Schachter et al., 1968). In particular, and as it was also explained previously, binge eating and overeating behaviours are commonly perceived as an ‘escape strategy’ from negative emotions (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991). In order to explain this relationship between emotionality and disordered eating behaviours, it is initially possible to claim that BED individuals live more stressful lives, which leads them to experience more negative emotionality and therefore engage in disordered eating behaviours. However, not everybody would react to stressful circumstances with disordered eating or with any other compensatory reaction. This points to the notion that it is not stressful circumstances that trigger disordered eating per se, but rather a diminished ability to cope with adverse events. In fact, some researchers perceive binge eating as a coping mechanism for individuals who experience distress (Fisher et al., 2004).
Coping is defined as an ability to expend conscious effort to solve personal problems, and to seek to master, minimize, tolerate, and overcome the experiences of stress (Fisher et al., 2004). Research differentiates between two types of coping – adaptive coping, where
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individuals succeed in minimising and tolerating stress, and maladaptive coping, where the ability to tolerate stress is reduced (Zeidner & Saklofske, 1996). Existing research has already provided some insights into the link between binge eating and coping. For example, Paxton and Diggens (1998) found that binge eating scores correlate highly with the use of avoidance coping. This was explained in terms of the notion that binge eaters avoid dealing with stress explicitly and therefore tend to indulge in excessive food intake as a means of reducing their negative emotionality. The same research also found a link between restrained eating and avoidance coping. Additionally, Freeman and Gil (2004) revealed that it is not merely stress that triggers binge eating behaviours, but also a tendency for avoidance coping, which predicted the risk of future binges. The evidence also pertains to the notion that avoidant coping mediates the link between stress and binge eating (Sulkowski, Dempsey, & Dempsey, 2011). Finally, the link between coping and binge eating is also indirectly demonstrated in the fact that therapies for BED focus on increasing adaptive coping in BED individuals (Telch, Agras, & Linhan, 2001).
A final point worth mentioning is that the higher levels of the trait EI have been linked to adaptive coping, whereas the lower levels of the trait have been linked to maladaptive coping (Montes-Berges & Augusto, 2007; Por, Barriball, Fitzpatrick, & Roberts, 2011). This is because individuals who possesses high levels of the trait EI tend to have more self-control and more social support. However, the studies that found an association between high EI and adaptive coping relied on self-report measures, and the authors of those studies said that self- report measures may not be a best way to assess coping, simply because participants may seek to present themselves in a favourable light, thus reporting a more frequent engagement in adaptive versus maladaptive coping (Montes-Berges & Augusto, 2007; Por et al., 2011). Fisher and Katz (2010) similarly state that self-report measures may be particularly problematic when assessing people’s coping tendencies because the scores on such measures
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do not necessarily predict people’s adaptive responses to stress, as assessed with the use of experimental manipulations. It is for this reason that Por et al., (2011) conclude that the relationship between EI and coping needs to be re-assessed through experimental manipulations rather than via self-report measures.
Still, if we assume the association between coping and BED on one hand, and the trait EI and coping on the other, what remains is to establish whether coping mediates the link between lower levels of the EI trait and a tendency to engage in binge eating and overeating behaviours. It is possible that BED-O individuals have lower levels of EI, which lowers their ability to cope in an adaptive way, further leading them to binge eat and overeat. The present research focuses on investigating this mediating role of coping.
4.2. The link between Depression and BED
Depression is characterized by lower mood states and an experience of reduced pleasure from activities that would generally lead to pleasure (Paxton & Diggens, 1998). It is a state of mind that has negative effects upon individuals’ thoughts, behaviours, feelings, and overall well- being. As it was recognized previously in the paper, BED commonly occurs together with major depressive disorder (Telch & Stice, 1998). In fact, research finds that BED individuals, even if they do not meet the diagnosis for major depressive disorder, tend to have higher scores on depression scales when compared to individuals also obese without BED (Linde, Jeffrey, Levy, Sherwood, Utter, Pronk, & Boyle, 2004; Spoor, Stice, Bekker, Van Strien, Cron, & Van Heck, 2006). A common explanation for this finding is the BED individuals score more highly on depression than non-BED because they have fewer social relationships, and because they score lower on personal development and fulfilment, community fulfilment, and recreation subscales of the Quality of Life Scale (Rieger et al., 2005). There is also substantial evidence that links emotional intelligence to depression, showing that individuals
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with lower EI tend to have higher depression scores (Fernandez-Berrocal, Salovey, Vera, Extremera, & Ramos, 2005; Fernandez-Berrocal, Alcaide, Extremera, & Pizzaro, 2006).
Importantly, from all person-related factors that are associated with BED, depression has been investigated the most, being consistently found to predict the engagement in binge eating (see Paxton & Diggens, 1998). Since the present research focuses on investigating the extent to which coping mediates the link between trait EI the engagement in disordered eating behaviours, and since depression has been linked to both trait EI and disordered eating, it seems especially relevant to control for the scores of depression when investigating this link. Otherwise, any possible link between trait EI and disordered eating can be attributed to lower depression scores rather than to lower coping scores. The present research takes this notion into account.
4.3. Summary
In summary, the present chapter briefly defined coping and depression, and presented evidence for the link between both of these concepts, on one hand, and the trait EI and the engagement in disordered eating behaviours on the other. The proposed argument here is that maladaptive coping will mediate the link between lower levels of the trait EI and the engagement in binge eating and overeating behaviours, thus explaining why the BED-O population engages in disordered eating in response to lowered EI scores. Importantly, since depression acts as one of the most researched factors in the prediction of binge eating behaviours, it is important to control for the effects of depression scores, so that it is easier to estimate the extent to which coping as a mediator contributes uniquely to explaining the association between EI and disordered eating behaviours.
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Chapter 5. Hypotheses and Methodology