ALEXITHYMIA AND EMOTIONAL EATING: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF IMPULSIVITY AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF MINDFULNESS
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Alexithymia, a trait marked by difficulties in identifying and expressing emotions, has been linked to various maladaptive behaviors, including emotional eating. However, there is limited research examining the underlying psychological mechanisms such as impulsivity and mindfulness, particularly in culturally distinct student populations. This study addresses the gap by exploring the mediating role of impulsivity and the moderating role of mindfulness in the relationship between alexithymia and emotional eating among university students in Pakistan and Turkey. Objective: To investigate how impulsivity mediates and mindfulness moderates the relationship between alexithymia and emotional eating in young adults. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was employed, and data were collected using purposive sampling from 280 university students (aged 18–25) in Pakistan and Turkey. The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, and Emotional Eating Scale were administered. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 26 and Hayes' PROCESS Macro Version 4.2. Pearson’s correlations, mediation (Model 4), and moderation (Model 1) analyses were conducted. Results: Alexithymia was significantly and positively correlated with impulsivity (r = .84, p < .01) and emotional eating (r = .95, p < .01), while negatively and non-significantly correlated with mindfulness (r = –.05, p > .05). Impulsivity was positively related to emotional eating (r = .92, p < .01). Mediation analysis revealed a significant direct effect of alexithymia on impulsivity (β = .50, SE = .01, p < .001) and of impulsivity on emotional eating (β = .53, SE = .03, p < .001). Mindfulness did not significantly moderate the relationship between alexithymia and emotional eating (β = .001, SE = .000, p > .05). Conclusion: Findings highlight impulsivity as a key mediator in the link between alexithymia and emotional eating. However, mindfulness did not demonstrate a moderating effect. These insights underline the need for targeted interventions to improve emotional regulation and reduce maladaptive coping strategies in university populations.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".