Differences in daily stress, mood, coping, and eating behavior in binge eating and nonbinge eating college women

This study investigated differences between binge eaters and controls on measures of daily stress, mood, coping, and eating behavior. The same measures were also used to compare binge days to nonbinge days for the binge group. Participants included 20 college women who reported binge eating at least two times per week and 20 women who reported no disturbance in their eating behavior. They were asked to self-monitor their daily stress, coping, mood, and eating behavior for three weeks. Results indicated that the binge group reported more stress and negative mood over the three weeks than the control group. The binge group reported experiencing a similar number of stressful events on binge days as compared to nonbinge days, however, the impact of those events was much greater on binge days. The binge eaters also reported less positive mood and more episodes of eating on binge days. The groups did not differ in the number of coping strategies used. Stress and negative mood appear to be common antecedents for binge eating. The role of coping responses and daily eating behavior (i.e., restraint) on binge eating is somewhat less clear.