Is The Eating Behavior of Women Emotionally Influenced? : The Phenomenon of Gender-Based Differences in Eating Behavior in Adolescents
Nila Reswari Haryana*, Risti Rosmiati, Yatty Destani Sandy, Hardi Firmansyah

Nutrition Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, University State of Medan, Medan, Indonesia

Abstract

Adolescents and young adults around the world have experiences high rates of weight gain. The diet of adolescents today has begun to shift to an unbalanced diet, thereby increasing the incidence of overweight. When talking about eating behavior, there is a stereotype that women tend to crave snacks compared to men who tend to consume more food than craving. This study aims to determine differences in emotional eating behavior based on gender. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 114 young adults from one of the universities in Medan City in July 2023. Emotional eating scores were obtained using the DEBQ questionnaire which was then analyzed using the Mann Whitney test. The results showed that there was a significant difference between emotional eating in women and men (p<0.05). The difference in eating behavior seen differently between young adult women and men lies when they feel depressed/discouraged, upset, and angry. Thus, there are differences between young adult women and men in eating behavior related to emotions.

Keywords: Depressed- Emotional eating- Gender- Young adult

Topic: Social Science and Humanities