The Effect of COVID-19 Information Overload on Emotional Eating in Post-pandemic Period in China: The Mediating Role of Fear of COVID-19 and the Moderating Role of Self-compassion

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 information overload on emotional eating behavior in China ’s post-pandemic period, while considering the mediating role of fear of COVID-19 and the protective role of self-compassion. The study was based on stimulus-organism-response framework and emotion regulation theories and it used convenience sampling to recruit 902 adult participants from 31 provi nces in China, who completed the COVID-19 Information Overload Scale, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Emotional Eating Scale, and Self-Compassion Scale. SPSS 24.0 and the Process 3.5 macro program were used to carry out descriptive statistical, correlation analyses and moderated mediating effect tests on th e data. The results indicated that COVID-19 information overload is a significant predictor of emotional eating behavior, with fear of COVID-19 mediating this relationship. Furthermore, the study found that self-compassion moderates the negative effect of COVID-19 information overload on fear of COV ID-19 and mitigates the effect of fear of COVID-19 on emotional eating. The findings highlight the mechanisms by which excessive and ambiguous information affects emotional eating behavior in the post-pandemic period and provide insights on how to improve individual emotional eating behavior.
Source: Applied Research in Quality of Life - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research