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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Eating Behavior
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1499705
This article is part of the Research Topic Mindful Eating and Mindfulness-Based Practices for Healthier Eating View all 6 articles

Mindfulness acting with awareness and emotional eating among polycystic ovary syndrome women with infertility: the mediating role of depression

Provisionally accepted
Mengye Yang Mengye Yang 1,2Xiaoyu contribute as equal Wang Xiaoyu contribute as equal Wang 2Yan Zhang Yan Zhang 1*Weina Qian Weina Qian 1*Yan Tang Yan Tang 1*
  • 1 Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, China
  • 2 Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Emotional eating, characterized by the tendency to increase food intake in response to negative emotional states, is often linked to poor emotion regulation. While mindfulness-based interventions have been studied for their benefits in reducing emotional eating, less is known about how inherent mindfulness traits, relate to emotional regulation particularly among individuals with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a population known for high rates of psychological distress and disordered eating behaviors. This study investigates the associations between different facets of mindfulness, depressive symptoms, and emotional eating among individuals with PCOS and infertility who had not received any formal mindfulness intervention. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 334 individuals. Participants completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depressive symptoms, and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to measure emotional eating. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the relationships between inherent mindfulness traits (i.e., observation, describing, acting with awareness, non-reactivity, and non-judgment), depressive symptoms, anxiety, and emotional eating. The findings indicated that the trait of acting with awareness may reduce emotional eating through its influence on depressive symptoms, while observational mindfulness was found to be associated with increased emotional eating without prior external mindfulness training. In conclusion, Mindfulness is a multidimensional construct, with its facets contributing differently to emotional regulation and eating behaviors in individuals with PCOS and infertility.Future research should explore these nuances to develop more targeted interventions.

    Keywords: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, mindfulness, emotional eating, Depression, infertile

    Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Wang, Zhang, Qian and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yan Zhang, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, China
    Weina Qian, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, China
    Yan Tang, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.