The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of individuals due to severe changes in their normal life routines. These changes might give rise to stress-induced factors and result in developing maladaptive behaviors. Therefore, the present study tested an explorative sequential mediation model regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as a global natural experiment and hypothesized that fear and depression would be serial mediators of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and emotional eating. An online cross-sectional survey with convenience sampling was adopted. A total of 362 participants were recruited from Turkey, and each completed a battery of demographic questions and psychometric scales. The standardized instruments used to test the model’s constructs were the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R21. The model was tested using a bootstrapping method utilizing IBM AMOS 24 software. Results showed that emotional eating was positively associated with intolerance of uncertainty, fear of COVID-19, and depression. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 had positive correlation with intolerance of uncertainty and depression. Significant negative association was also found between age and intolerance of uncertainty. In addition, females significantly reported higher levels of emotional eating and fear of COVID-19 than males. The study’s hypothesized sequential mediation model was further supported. It is concluded that depression most likely developed by fear was triggered by intolerance of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic and leading to emotional eating. The study is significant because it advances theories of emotional eating with an investigation examining some of its underlying mechanisms. Also, it is one of a few research studies highlighting to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic-related cognitions and emotions are associated with maladaptive behaviors in the case of emotional eating.

由于人们的正常生活习惯发生了严重变化，COVID-19 大流行极大地影响了个人的心理健康。这些变化可能会引起压力诱发因素，并导致出现适应不良的行为。因此，本研究测试了将 COVID-19 大流行作为全球自然实验的探索性顺序中介模型，并假设恐惧和抑郁将是不确定性不耐受与情绪化进食之间关系的连续中介。采用方便抽样的在线横断面调查。从土耳其招募了 362 名参与者，每个人都完成了一系列人口统计问题和心理测量量表。用于测试模型构造的标准化工具是不确定性不容忍量表、对 COVID-19 量表的恐惧、医院焦虑和抑郁量表和三因素饮食问卷-R21。使用 IBM AMOS 24 软件的引导方法对该模型进行了测试。结果表明，情绪化进食与对不确定性的不耐受、对 COVID-19 的恐惧和抑郁呈正相关。此外，对 COVID-19 的恐惧与对不确定性和抑郁的不耐受呈正相关。在年龄和对不确定性的不容忍之间也发现了显着的负相关。此外，与男性相比，女性显着报告了更高水平的情绪化进食和对 COVID-19 的恐惧。该研究假设的顺序中介模型得到进一步支持。得出的结论是，最有可能由恐惧引起的抑郁症是由 COVID-19 大流行期间对不确定性的不容忍引发的，并导致情绪化进食。这项研究意义重大，因为它通过一项调查研究情绪化进食的一些潜在机制，推进了情绪化进食的理论。此外，它是少数几项研究之一，强调在情绪化进食的情况下，与 COVID-19 大流行相关的认知和情绪在多大程度上与适应不良行为相关。