Shiqing Song

Background: Excessive parental control has been found to be associated with an increasing risk of emotional eating in children, yet the potential moderating role of emotion regulation abilities remains unclear. This study investigated the relationships between different types of parental control and emotional eating, as well as the mediating effects of specific emotion regulation strategies and negative emotions. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 1167 Chinese college students (62.5% females, age: 20.23 ± 1.50 years) recruited via social media. Participants completed the Parental Control Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS and PROCESS (Model 81), with BMI, age, and gender controlled as a covariate. Mediation effects were tested using the 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (based on 5000 samples). Results: The results indicate that (1) both parental behavioral control and psychological control were significantly positively correlated with emotional eating, with effect sizes ranging from small to moderate; (2) anxiety and stress in negative emotions partially mediate the relationship between the two dimensions of parental control and emotional eating, while depression did not serve as a mediator in this relationship; (3) expression suppression and stress chain-mediated between the two dimensions of parental control and emotional eating; expression suppression and anxiety chain-mediated between parental psychological control and emotional eating. Conclusions: Higher parental control is associated with increased emotional eating behaviors in children. Anxiety, stressful emotions, and expressive suppression play significant roles. These findings suggest new interventions to reduce emotional eating and associated overweight risks in college students.

The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on all aspects of people’s lives, including their attitudes toward society and psychological well-being. This study aimed to analyze the variation in public trust, perceived societal fairness, and well-being before and after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study used two-wave longitudinal data of 15,487 residents (2018, T1; 2020, T2) derived from the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS). A repeated measures analysis of variance showed that (a) public trust, perceived societal fairness, and subjective well-being significantly improved and (b) depression significantly increased. Linear regression analysis showed that education and socioeconomic status had a significant predictive effect on public trust, perceived societal fairness, and depression; socioeconomic status had a significant predictive effect on subjective well-being. This study provides evidence and direction for current social governance, namely, policy implementation and pandemic response.