Academic stressors and their impact on emotional eating in university students: Implications for physical health and well-being
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v67.115428Keywords:
Academic stress, emotional eating, physical health, university students, well-beingAbstract
Introduction: nowadays, academic demands affect the physical and emotional health of university students, who often resort to emotional eating as a coping mechanism in response to academic stress.
Objective: to determine the academic stressors that predict emotional eating in a sample of students from a private university in the Peruvian Amazon.
Methodology: a quantitative approach was adopted, with a non-experimental predictive design. The sample consisted of 310 university students who completed the Academic Stressors Questionnaire and the Emotional Eating Questionnaire, both with adequate psychometric properties.
Results: The regression model was statistically significant (F= 7.817, p<0.05), explaining 24% of the variance in emotional eating (R²= 0.240). Among the academic stressors, those that significantly predicted higher levels of emotional eating were: bearing economic costs related to courses (β= 0.261), balancing work and courses (β= 0.236), balancing study and family life (β= 0.206), and relating to classmates (β= 0.176).
Discussion: Although some studies support the idea that academic stressors can predict emotional eating, there is a lack of research that specifically identifies which of these factors have the greatest impact. This highlights the need to further explore this type of analysis within the university context.
Conclusions: Difficulties in relating to classmates, balancing work and course-work, harmonizing study with family life, and facing the economic costs associated with education are academic stressors that significantly predict emotional eating.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Edwin Gustavo Estrada-Araoz, Jose Eli Churayra-Chura , Maysha Yeset Quispe-Loaiza, Eloy Alberto Calderón-Villanueva, Gilber Chura-Quispe, Elizabeth Orfelia Cruz-Laricano
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