Comparison of Food-Based and Music-Based Regulatory Strategies for (Un)Healthy Eating, Depression, Anxiety and Stress

There are many ways to regulate emotions. People use both adaptive (e.g., regulation by music) and maladaptive (e.g., regulation by food) strategies to do this. We hypothesized that participants with a high level of food-based regulatory strategies and a low level of music-based regulatory strategies (a group with the least adaptive form of emotion regulation) would have significantly greater levels of unhealthy eating behaviours, depression, anxiety and stress, as well as a significantly lower level of healthy eating behaviours than those with a low level of food-based regulatory strategies and a high level of music-based regulatory strategies (a group with the greatest adaptive form of emotion regulation). Participants (N = 410; Mage = 31.77, SD = 13.53) completed: the Brief Music in Mood Regulation Scale, the Emotional Overeating Questionnaire, the Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Behavior Scale, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and a socio-demographic survey. The four clusters were identified: (a) Cluster 1 (N = 148): low food-based regulatory strategies and high music-based regulatory strategies; (b) Cluster 2 (N = 42): high food-based regulatory strategies and high music-based regulatory strategies; (c) Cluster 3 (N = 70): high food-based regulatory strategies and low music-based regulatory strategies; (d) Cluster 4 (N = 150): low food-based regulatory strategies and low music-based regulatory strategies. Overall, our outcomes partially support our hypothesis, as higher levels of unhealthy eating behaviours, depression, anxiety and stress were observed in participants with high food-based and low music-based regulatory strategies as compared with adults with low food-based and high music-based regulatory strategies. To sum up, the results obtained indicate that during the COVID-19 pandemic the group of people regulating their emotional state and unhealthy eating predominantly with food is potentially characterized by worse functioning than the group of people regulating with music. Therefore, it can be concluded that people who regulate their functioning using food should be included in preventive measures by specialists. During the visit, psychologists and primary care physicians can ask patients about their daily strategies and based on this information specialists can estimate the potential risk of developing high levels of stress and anxiety, depressive disorders and unhealthy eating habits and provide specific (match) intervention.