The Relationship between Perceived Stress, Emotional Eating and Physical Activity among University Students

Abstract

This research attempts to understand the relationship between perceived stress, emotional eating and physical activity in Pakistani university students (N=250, 114 men, 136 women) aged 18 to 26 years (M= .72, SD= .679) from government, private and semi-government educational institutions of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The research hypotheses stated that perceived stress will be positively correlated with the variable of emotional eating, and negatively correlated with the variable of physical activity, and that female students will have higher engagement in emotional eating during perceived stress, and men will have greater engagement in physical activity. The constructs have been measured using the Perceived Stress Scale-10, The Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale, and The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. The research’s results indicate that perceived stress is significantly negatively correlated with emotional eating and significantly negatively correlated with physical activity. Women have a higher expression of perceived stress, while men have a higher expression of emotional eating and greater engagement in physical activitywhen stressed. Moving on, Stress significantly correlates with the Emotional Eating subscales Anger and Anxiety, but has a non-significant correlation with the subscales of Happiness and Sadness. Stress is also significantly correlated with the physical activity levels/categories of Vigorous Physical Activity and Moderate Physical Activity, but is not significantly correlated with Walking. Moreover the dependent variables, Emotional Eating and Physical Activity are also significantly correlated. This evidence contributes to the research in the dimension of perceived stress management as well as ensuring that university students have future healthy eating behaviors and physical activity engagement.