The relationship between intuitive eating and stress coping strategies among students

Purpose. The main aim of this study was to find out the links between intuitive eating and stress coping strategies among students. Methods. One hundred eighty-five 18 – 28 years old students (46 (24,9%) males and 139 (75,1%) females) participated in this study. Students voluntary and anonymously responded to the survey on the Internet. Intuitive eating was assessed by Intuitive Eating Scale – 2 (IES-2) (Tylka & Kroon Van Diest, 2013). Stress coping strategies were measured using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988b). Results. More males reported eating for physical rather than emotional reasons and giving unconditional permission to eat than females did. Intuitive eating was inversely associated with body mass index. Students in normal weight and underweight categories scored higher than overweight or obese students on the IES-2 total scale and on Unconditional Permission to Eat and Reliance on Hunger and Satiety Cues subscales. The most common coping strategy among students was “Accepting Responsibility” and the least common strategy was “Seeking Social Support”. The IES-2 total score was inversely correlated with “Escape-Avoidance” stress coping strategy and positively correlated with “Planful Problem Solving”. Male students who eat more intuitively reported a greater use of “Planful Problem Solving” stress coping strategy than male who eat less intuitively. There was no difference in use of stress coping strategies between more and less intuitively eating female students. Conclusion. The results show no difference in intuitive eating between male and female students. More intuitively eating students have lower body mass index. Male and female students tend to choose the same stress coping strategies. High intuitive eating scores are associated with greater use of “Planful Problem Solving” coping strategy and less use of “Escape-Avoidance” coping strategy