The indirect effect of emotion regulation on the association between adverse childhood experiences and food addiction

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked with poorer mental and physical health outcomes among adults, including difficulties with emotion regulation and dysregulated eating behavior. For example, emotional regulation difficulties have been shown to mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and food addiction. Yet, little is known about which types of emotion regulation link ACES to food addiction. The goal of the present study was to examine the role of emotion regulation in the relationship between ACEs and food addiction. Undergraduate college students from a primarily Hispanic-serving institution (N = 110) completed an online survey assessing emotion dysregulation, ACEs, and food addiction. The sample was primarily comprised of Hispanic (77%) younger adults ( M age = 25.5, SD = 8.7). As predicted, there was a significant positive association between ACEs and food addiction ( p < 0.001) and a positive association between food addiction and emotional dysregulation ( p < 0.001). There was a significant indirect effect of emotional dysregulation in relation to adverse childhood experiences and food addiction. Among the emotion regulation difficulties domains, having limited access to emotion regulation strategies emerged as a significant mechanism in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and food addiction ( p