The Impact Of Zhongyong Thinking On Emotional Eating:A Moderated Chain Mediation Model

Emotional eating affects people’s physical and mental health.With the gradual enrichment of people’s material lives,emotional eating and its health problems are becoming increasingly common.However,foreign research on emotional eating is more comprehensive and in-depth,and domestic scholars have paid less attention to this issue and started relatively late.In their research,foreign methods and tools are mainly used for reference,and less consideration is given to whether certain cultural differences can also affect emotional eating.Zhongyong thinking is a unique mode of thinking formed in the context of Chinese culture,which has an important impact on the psychology and behavior of Chinese people.The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Zhongyong thinking and emotional eating,reveal its impact mechanism,explore whether cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions play a mediating role,and whether difficulties in emotion regulation play a moderating role in it,in order to provide theoretical and practical basis for the prevention and treatment of emotional eating.This study used the Zhongyong Thinking Scale,the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire(ERQ),the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule(PANAS),the Emotional Eating Scale(EES),and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(DERS)to measure college students’ Zhongyong thinking,cognitive reappraisal,negative emotions,emotional eating and difficulties in emotion regulation.1538 valid questionnaires were obtained,and statistical tools such as SPSS26.0 were used to collate and analyze the data.The results are as follows:(1)Zhongyong thinking significantly negatively predicted emotional eating,and the mediating effects of cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions were significant.Zhongyong thinking can not only directly predict emotional eating,but also affect emotional eating through cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions respectively.(2)The chain mediating effect of cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions is significant.Zhongyong thinking can influence emotional eating through cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions in turn.(3)The moderating effect of difficulties in emotion regulation is significant.Difficulties in emotion regulation moderates the chain mediating effect of cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions between Zhongyong thinking and emotional eating.This study concludes that Zhongyong thinking can directly affect emotional eating;Zhongyong thinking can affect emotional eating through cognitive reappraisal;Zhongyong thinking can affect emotional eating through negative emotions;Zhongyong thinking can further affect negative emotions and indirectly affect emotional eating by influencing cognitive reappraisal;Difficulties in emotion regulation can moderate the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions,thereby weakening the negative impact of low cognitive reappraisal.In summary,cognitive reappraisal and negative emotions are important internal mechanisms by which Zhongyong thinking affects emotional eating,and difficulties in emotion regulation have a protective effect.Therefore,cultivating Zhongyong thinking,establishing good emotional regulation habits,and improving emotional regulation abilities may be effective ways to influence or intervene in emotional eating tendencies or behaviors of college students.