Introduction

Newly emerging diseases with no cure such as SARS-CoV-2 have presented new challenges to medical profession. Although the members of the public are not involved in the search for the cure of the disease, most of them have been forced to work from home or stay at home without work for fear of contracting the disease. Although staying at home is good from a medical viewpoint, it affects the members of the public negatively. It denies them the opportunity to work and socialize freely without the fear of contracting the disease. As a result, although it reduces the chances of contracting the disease, it results to new forms of diseases especially the psychological ones, which have far-reaching long-term negative effects on the members of the public.

Even though containment measures were good despite resulting to psychological challenges among some members of the public, Pellegrini et al (2020) established that on average the 150 people who took part in the study increased weight by about 1.5 kilograms. The increased weights were linked to enhanced eating habits, unhealthy foods and lower levels of physical exercise among other factors. Hu et al (2020) established that about 30 percent of the 1033 people who took part in their study increased their fruit and vegetable intake during the COVID-19 containment measures. Similarly, Sidor and Rzymski (2020) established that about 52 percent and 43 percent of the 1097 participants reported snacking and eating more respectively. Although the tendency to eat more was higher among the obese and overweight participants, the results showed that majority of the people resulted to eating more than they ate before the implementation of containment measures. This was in spite of the fact that about 18 percent of the participants lost between 1.5 and 2.9 kilograms even though 30 percent of them gained between 1.6 and 3 kilograms.

Strien (2018) evaluated the link between matched obesity treatment and emotional eating. He defined emotional eating as food intake resulting from stress or negative emotions, and suggested that it was possible for certain groups of people to gain weight out of emotional eating (Strein, 2018). Although the weight gain may vary from one person to the other as Pellegrini et al (2020) and Sidor and Rzymski (2020) established, the findings from the current study have notable implication on treatment of obesity. They suggest that the treatment process for obese people especially those with negative emotions should focus on emotion regulation skills as opposed to restricting the level of calorie intake. Furthermore, the findings suggest that it would be possible for practitioners to train people who eat out of stress to restrain their satiety and hunger cues. Doing so would reduce the likelihood of weight gains especially during the stressful times such as the current one.

According to Webb and Forman (2013), people who engage in emotional eating are at the risk of gaining weight and developing psychosocial problems. While loneliness is linked to emotional eating, which results to weight gain, self-compassion is shown to improve eating behaviors suggesting that it may reduce the risks of weight gain during lockdowns (Neff et al, 2019). Self-compassion, which consists of six components, enables people to develop self-compassionate frames during stressful time via its six components. The six components include the sense of isolation, common humanity, over-identification, mindfulness, self-judgment and self-kindness. Although the process of developing self-compassion may not be automatic, it enables people to embrace their shortcomings; hence, reduces their chances of judging themselves harshly (Neff et al, 2019). In addition, it discourages people from isolating themselves especially when they encounter challenges meaning that it reduces the likelihood of emotional eating. This reduces the weight gain instances for the people who gain weight when they eat more food than usual.

Many studies evaluate the influence SARS-CoV-2 on eating behaviors among various groups of people. However, little has been done to evaluate the influence of loneliness, fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and self-compassion on stress eating. The current study evaluates the link between loneliness, fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and self-compassion on stress eating among US citizens. Once conducted, the study will depict the extent to which the psychological challenges participants went through during containment measures impacted their emotional well-being. This will be critical in developing the coping strategies that should be developed for different groups of people especially the ones who result to stress eating when they encounter challenges or stressful moments.

Literature review

Braun, Park and Gorin (2016) evaluated the influence of self-compassion on disordered eating habits. In a systematic review of 28 studies, the authors established that self-compassion lowered the level of eating pathology suggesting that it improved it. Levine (2012) evaluated the link between eating disorders and loneliness using systematic review. She established that negative interpersonal relationships exacerbated the feelings of loneliness and eating disorders. Additionally, she established that negative emotions in form of loneliness resulted to eating disorders; hence, appreciated the critical role that the findings contributed in treatment setting. Choi (2020) evaluated the effect of stress level on the eating habits of college students. With the help of 2 students, the author established that dietary behaviors differed statistically based on students’ stress level with those with high stress levels identified as embracing unhealthy dietary behaviors.

Webb and Forman (2013) evaluated the indirect impact of self-compassion on binge eating among undergraduate students. With the help of 250 students, 78 percent female, the authors identified a positive linear link between emotional intolerance and students’ binge eating habits. Although the study was correlational in nature thereby did not establish a causal link between binge eating habits and emotional intolerance among students, it suggested that an increase in either of the variable was likely to result to an increase in the other variable, and vice versa. Tan and Chow (2014) claim that stress eating can result to depression, eating disorders or weight gain. The present study attempts to evaluate the link between stress eating and loneliness, fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and self-compassion.

Fresnics, Wang and Borders (2019) evaluated the way rumination mediated the link between eating disorder psychopathology and self-compassion. With the help of 190 undergraduates, the authors established that depressive rumination mediated the link between eating disorder psychopathology and self-compassion. Nonetheless, the effect was notable in cross-sectional analysis, but not in longitudinal analyses suggesting that the effect did not last long. Although the effects may change from one person to the other and probably fail to last for long, it appears that loneliness such as the one experienced during COVID-19 and SARs may affect people negatively. This may result to stress eating among certain groups of people or reduce their eating habits altogether.

Gouveia, Canavarro and Moreira (2018) evaluated the mediating role of emotion regulation on the link between emotional eating, self-compassion and mindfulness among obese adolescents. With the help of 245 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years, the authors established that the participants with fewer difficulties in emotion regulation had higher levels of self-compassion and mindfulness, which reduced their emotional eating disorders. Additionally, they established a direct link between emotional eating and mindfulness, but an indirect one between the two variables suggesting that self-compassion was not likely to result to stress eating. The implication is that self-compassion is likely to help obese adolescents develop adaptive responses to psychological stress.

The fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to impact the health of the members of the public either positively or negatively. Sidor and Rzymski (2020) established that it increased snacking and eating among the 1097 people who took part in the study. Although 18 percent of the participants lost between 1.5 and 2.9 kilograms, about 30 percent of them gained between 1.6 and 3 kilograms. Pellegrini et al (2020) established that the participants increased their weight by about 1.5 kilograms during the COVID-19 containment measures. Among other things, the increased weight was linked to improved eating habits showing that majority of the participants might have resulted to emotional eating.

Strein (2018) establishes that the negative emotions that people develop either at or home or at workplaces is possible of weaken the levels of food intake among dieters. He claims that when people eat less than they are supposed to eat, their bodies may not distinguish such food restrictions especially the self-imposed ones from food shortages. This slows down the metabolism rates, but unfortunately it increases the appetite. When dieters under eat for whatever reason particularly during the stressful period, they are likely to abandon their diets and eat more food. Under such a case, dieting would result to emotional eating, which may impact health either positively or negatively. Strein (2018) also establishes that it is possible for emotional eating to occur in the absence of dieting suggesting that other groups of people may be vulnerable to stress eating.

Tan and Chow (2014) evaluated the role that eating dysregulation played in mediating the link between emotional eating and stress. With the help of 345 participants, the study established that stress affected the way participants responded to satiety and hunger internal signals, which resulted to emotional eating. Tahir (2016) claims that stress may result to carving for food either directly or by arousing the desire for food. The author claims that when people encounter stressful moment, they are likely to disorder their eating behaviors and attitudes. Radin et al (2020) evaluated the link between metabolic health and stress eating on obese adults with a view to determine whether weight loss training programs based on mindfulness were likely to influence the link. With the help of 194 obese participants, the study established that participants with compulsive eating behaviors were likely to reduce their metabolic rates if they participated in mindfulness weight loss programs. The authors recommended that obesity interventions developed in the future should consider developing such programs for obese people with compulsive eating behaviors.

Although emotional eating has been linked with weight gain, very little has been done to evaluate the influence of loneliness, fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and self-compassion on stress eating. Most of the studies evaluate the factors independently meaning that they do not combine them. Moreover, very little has been done to evaluate the effect of fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 on stress eating because the subject is relatively new. Even though the studies provide valuable information, they suggest that stress eating may affect different groups of people differently. To the dieters, it may increase their appetite; hence, result to weight gain. Although a similar trend is possible even in the absence of dieting, both loneliness and fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 have been linked with stress eating. To fill the gap, the current study evaluates the influence of loneliness, fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and self-compassion on stress eating.

Research focus

Research questions

• What is the relationship between loneliness related to the pandemic and stress eating?
• What is the relationship between fear of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and stress eating?
• What is the relationship between self-compassion and emotional eating?

Hypothesis

The study hypothesizes as follows;

Loneliness

Independent variables:

• Loneliness
• Fear of contracting SARS-CoV-2oneself and/or contracting it and transmitting to family members
• Self-compassion

Dependent variable:

• Stress eating

Appendix

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