An investigation into the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and food addiction: The role of urgency and emotion dysregulation

Abstract

Food addiction is one of the most common substance or behavioural addictions and is linked to negative consequences. Thus, there is a need to investigate the risk factors associated with food addiction. The current study examined if emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and food addiction and whether affective impulsivity (negative and positive urgency) uniquely moderated this relationship. Participants (N = 602) recruited from a large university completed an online survey consisting of several self-report measures, including symptoms of food addiction, childhood adversity, emotion dysregulation and affective impulsivity. A total of 6.5% of the participants met the cut-off for mild (n = 39) levels of food addiction, 3.8% met the cut-off for moderate (n = 23), and 5.0% met the cut-off for severe (n = 30) food addiction. Logistic regression results demonstrated that physical neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse and household substance use were significant predictors of whether someone met the criteria for food addiction. Moderated mediation results indicated that adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with emotion dysregulation, affective impulsivity, and food addiction. However, contrary to our hypothesis we did not find significant moderated-mediation between emotion dysregulation, food addiction and affective impulsivity. The findings may carry implications for preventing and treating food addiction among university students with adverse childhood experiences. Future longitudinal research is necessary to understand how experiences of childhood adversities and emotion dysregulation can increase the risk of developing food addiction.