The Influence Of Fear Of Evaluation On Abnormal Eating Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Ego Depletion

Nowadays,with the development of Internet information,various media and social platforms promote unhealthy eating concepts and the "skinny for beauty" body standard.More and more young people,especially college students,have abnormal eating behaviors such as dieting and overeating,which further affect their physical and mental health and quality of life.Fear of evaluation has been identified as an important risk factor for abnormal eating behavior,however,there are few studies on mechanisms underlying the relationship between them and mostly cross-sectional studies.In addition,existing studies mainly focus on the explicit fear of evaluation,but little research on the implicit fear of evaluation.Researches also show that there is a correlation between fear of negative evaluation and ego depletion,which is one of the factors affecting abnormal eating behavior.Based on these,this paper,through three studies,investigated the situation of implicit and explicit fear of evaluation in college students,and explored the relationship between fear of evaluation and abnormal eating behavior,as well as the mediating role of ego depletion in the effects of fear of evaluation on abnormal eating behavior.In the first study,experimental method and questionnaire method were used to examine whether college students had implicit fear of evaluation and its relationship with explicit fear of evaluation.The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure(IRAP)and questionnaire were used to investigate the fear of evaluation in 85 college students.The results showed that:(1)There was no implicit fear of positive evaluation,but there was implicit fear of negative evaluation.(2)There was no significant correlation between the implicit fear of negative evaluation and the explicit fear of negative evaluation.On the basis of study 1,Study 2 adopted a cross-sectional design to explore the relationship between college students’ fear of evaluation,ego depletion and abnormal eating behavior.The study targeted college students.Sample 1(n=85)of Study 1 was used to explore the relationship between implicit fear of negative evaluation and abnormal eating behavior,and the mediating role of ego depletion.After that,a total of 553 college students as sample 2,were tested through an online questionnaire platform,and the data were collected to explore the mediating role of ego depletion between in the effects of explicit fear of evaluation on abnormal eating behavior.The results showed that:(1)Implicit fear of negative evaluation could positively predict abnormal eating behavior,but ego depletion did not mediate the effects of implicit fear of negative evaluation on abnormal eating behavior;(2)Ego depletion partially mediated the effects of implicit fear of positive evaluation on abnormal eating behavior,with the mediating effect accounting for 20.83%;(3)depletion partially mediated the effects of implicit fear of negative evaluation on abnormal eating behavior,with the mediating effect accounting for35.29%.Based on study 2,the longitudinal tracking method was adopted in study 3 to further examine the relationship between explicit fear of evaluation and abnormal eating behavior,as well as the longitudinal mediating effect of ego depletion between explicit fear of evaluation and abnormal eating behavior.Through an online questionnaire platform,351 college students were followed up for 3 times,3 months apart.The cross-lagged panel model results showed that:(1)Baseline explicit fear of evaluation significantly positively predicted abnormal eating behavior of college students 6 months later.(2)Ego depletion played a longitudinal mediating role between explicit fear of positive evaluation and abnormal eating behavior.(3)Ego depletion played a longitudinal mediating role between explicit fear of negative evaluation and abnormal eating behavior.Conclusions:(1)Although there is no implicit fear of positive evaluation in college students,their implicit fear of negative evaluation can positively predict abnormal eating behavior,showing that fear of negative evaluation affects the behavior of individuals on both conscious and unconscious levels.(2)Explicit fear of evaluation can not only directly affect the abnormal eating behavior of college students,but also indirectly affect the abnormal eating behavior of college students through ego depletion.