Research
Adherence
High perceived stress is directly associated with unhealthy eating behaviors (emotional eating and uncontrolled eating) but does NOT influence weight status through these behaviors.
Stress reliably triggers emotional and uncontrolled eating in this population. However, changing these behaviors alone may not reduce severe obesity if the direct physiological stress response (e.g., cortisol) remains unaddressed.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Perceived stress was directly and positively associated with uncontrolled eating (β = 0.38, p < 0.001) and emotional eating (β = 0.50, p < 0.001)... However, higher stress was not associated with weight status through eating behaviors and diet quality.
Why this rating
Cross-sectional; behavioral measures are self-reported.
Source
Perceived stress, unhealthy eating behaviors, and severe obesity in low-income women
Andrea S. Richardson et al. · Nutrition Journal · 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12937-015-0110-4
cross_sectional · n=101Cited 169×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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