Background: Emotional eating, defined as eating in response to a range of negative emotions, is common in youths. Yet, there are few easily administered and well-validated methods to assess emotional eating in pediatric populations.
Objective: The current study tested the construct validity of the Emotional Eating Scale (EES) Adapted for Children and Adolescents (EES-C) by examining its relationship to observed emotional eating at laboratory test meals.
Method: A total of 151 youths (8-18 years) participated in two multi-item lunch buffet meals on separate days. They ate ad libitum after being instructed to 'eat as much as you would at a normal meal' or to 'let yourself go and eat as much as you want'. State negative affect was assessed immediately before each meal. The EES-C was completed 3 months, on average, before the first test meal.
Results: Among youths with high EES-C total scores, but not low EES-C scores, higher pre-meal state negative affect was related to greater total energy intake at both meals, with and without the inclusion of age, race, sex and body mass index (BMI) standard deviation as covariates (ps<0.03).
Discussion: The EES-C demonstrates good construct validity for children and adolescents' observed energy intake across laboratory test meals designed to capture both normal and disinhibited eating. Future research is required to evaluate the construct validity of the EES-C in the natural environment and the predictive validity of the EES-C longitudinally.