Iranian Journal of Diabetes and Obesity

en Investigating the Association between Eating Self-Efficacy and Emotional Eating: The Parallel Mediating Roles of Shame and Guilt in Women with Overweight and Obesity تخصصي Special پژوهشي Research Objective: The study investigated the direct and indirect pathways between eating self-efficacy and emotional eating behavior in women with overweight and obesity, evaluating the parallel mediating roles of shame and guilt related to body and weight. Materials and Methods: A total of 228 women between the ages of 18 and 70, with overweight and obesity (Body Mass Index≥ 25), were recruited through purposive sampling. Participants completed online questionnaires: Demographic Information Questionnaire (DIQ), Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), Weight- and Body-Related Shame and Guilt Scale (WEB-SG), Weight Efficacy Lifestyle-Short Form (WEL-SF). Descriptive statistics and parallel mediation analysis (PROCESS model 4) with bootstrapping were used to test the hypothesized model. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. Results: Higher levels of eating self-efficacy were directly associated with the lower levels of emotional eating behavior (P< 0.001), and indirectly related to reduced emotional eating by decreased weight- and body-related shame and guilt (P< 0.05). Shame and guilt served as partial, parallel mediators. The model explained 39% of the variance in emotional eating behavior (R2= 0.39). Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of addressing cognitive and emotional factors in interventions to improve eating behaviors and manage obesity in women, providing actionable insights for healthcare professionals and researchers. Disordered eating behavior, Emotions, Self-Efficacy 88 96 http://ijdo.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-30-444&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Nazli Tavakoli 0000-0002-5703-0839 No Ph.D. Student in Health Psychology, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran. Mohammadreza Seyrafi 0000-0002-6400-2959 Yes Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran. Mehdi Manouchehri 0000-0001-5440-6557 No Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, TeMS.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Abdolreza Norouzy 0000-0001-6740-5502 No Associate Professor, Medical Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Tehran, Iran. Gholamreza Sarami Foroushani 0000-0002-7584-2435 No Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.