Relationship of Stress and other Factors with Emotional Eating among Adolescents in Depok

Emotional eating is an overeating behavior as a coping mechanism for negative emotions that emerges in adolescence. Emotional eating causes obesity, eating disorders, and non-communicable diseases. This study aims to determine the relationship between stress, body image, peer influence, parental rearing styles, social media use, sex, sleep quality, and emotion regulation with emotional eating behavior among adolescents at senior high school in Depok. This cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted online in March 2022. The samples were grade X and XI students from senior high school in Depok who were chosen by using purposive sampling techniques (n=174). The results revealed that around 52.3% of participants engaged in emotional eating. There was a significant relationship between stress and emotional eating (p-value=0,026). There was a significant difference in the mean of peer influence score in the group with and without emotional eating (p-value=0,025). Severe stress increases the risk of emotional eating by 6.476 times more than moderate and mild stress. Teachers and the Public Health Department are encouraged to teach adolescents on how to cope from stress effectively. Parents can utilize effective parental rearing styles and pay closer attention to their children's mental health.