The relationship between stress and binge eating habits among University of Malta students

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effects of stress and its relation to binge-eating in university students. Previous studies depict a link between these two variables. Thus, this research seeks to replicate and extend previous literature that supports a relation between stress and binging. Furthermore, the study also included individuals of all genders in order to examine gender differences in relation to stress and eating. A quantitative approach was adopted for the purpose of this research. The reason for this is that quantitative methods will allow for the data to be objective and assessed in a measurable way. The demographic of this study were students which attend the University of Malta and are between the age of 18-25. The questionnaire was distributed online using the survey website Google Forms and participants were recruited participate by email via the registrar. The data was then organised and compared using the programme SPSS version 28.0.0. The study made the following findings. Firstly, in line with previous literature, binge-eating and stress were found to be correlated. When it came to gender differences between stress and binge-eating, the findings showed that females are more likely to show binge-eating habits than males, however, no difference between genders was found in the perception of stress. The findings of the study imply that in general, the sample displayed high scores for both binge-eating behaviours and stress, depicting a need for more education about healthy eating habits and stress management among university students