The Moderating Role of Spirituality in the Relationship Between Binge Eating Disorder and Depression

Abstract

A considerable body of academic literature has been published about spirituality, eating disorders and mood disorders. Although there are several studies about the relationship between mood disorders and eating disorder, or the effect of spirituality on mood disorders, the role of spirituality in the relationship between the mood disorder and eating disroders has not been discussed sufficiently. Thus, the primary aim of this article is to examine to moderating role of spirituality on the relationship between binge eating disorder (BED) and depression. 300 Turkish individuals have participated in this correlational study and the range of ages relies on between 18 and 33. Demographic information Form, Beck depression Inventory, Spirituality Scale, SCL-90 Symptom Checklist and Binge Eating Scale were used for data collection in the study. The results showed that, there is a significant negative correlation between the levels of spirituality and the depression (r= -.0.229, p<.001). However, there is a positive correlation between the depression and BED (r= 0.477, p <.001). Spirituality has a significant moderating effect on the correlation between the depression and BED (β = -0.106, p =.034) although there is not a statistically significant correlation between spirituality and BED. Thus, it can be said that spirituality can serve as a protective barrier for elevation of the mood disorder which may result in prevention for external coping methods for emotional regulation such as eating, gambling, shopping so on and so forth. In other words, it is important to consider the interaction between the psychosocial factors and spirituality in the formulation of any treatment or preventive approaches for binge eating disorder.