AccScience Publishing / HPR / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/HPR026230120
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

The relationship between physical exercise and emotional eating among college students: The role of mindful eating and childhood socioeconomic status

Qianyu Wu1 ,  Yue Hu1* ,  Yueyue Zhu1 ,  Miao Han1
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1 Department of Sports Psychology, School of Education and Psychology, Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China
HPR, 026230120 https://doi.org/10.36922/HPR026230120
Received: 2 June 2026 | Revised: 14 July 2026 | Accepted: 3 August 2026 | Published online: 17 August 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Globally, 44.9% of college students engage in emotional eating. Burdened by academic and life stress, many overeat as a maladaptive coping mechanism. It triggers gastrointestinal troubles, weight swings, low self-esteem, bad moods, and poor grades, meriting exploration of its mechanisms.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the association between physical exercise and emotional eating among college students, while examining the mediating role of mindful eating and the moderating role of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) within this relationship.

Methods: A total of 1,130 college students participated in the survey, including 606 males with a mean age of 20.54 years. The survey employed the Physical Activity Rating Scale, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, the Mindful Eating Questionnaire, and the Childhood Socioeconomic Status Questionnaire.

Results: Physical exercise was significantly negatively correlated with emotional eating among college students. Mindful eating partially mediated the relationship between physical exercise and emotional eating. Childhood SES corresponded to varying correlational strengths linking four of the five mindful eating dimensions to emotional eating, while no such differentiated correlational pattern emerged for disinhibition. Specifically, among college students from high childhood SES backgrounds, awareness and external cues showed stronger positive associations with emotional eating, whereas distraction and emotional response showed stronger negative associations with emotional eating.

Conclusion: Physical exercise correlated with reduced emotional eating among college students, partly through mindful eating pathways. Childhood SES moderated the second mediation stage in a dimension-specific manner, amplifying both risk-related and protective links depending on the mindful eating facet.

Keywords
Physical exercise
Emotional eating
Mindful eating
Childhood socioeconomic status
College students
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this work.
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