The Relationship of Mental Toughness and Emotional Eating: The Example of a Female Wrestler

Emotional eating is the act of eating to cope with stress and pressure, and it is assumed that this behavior increases as the level of self-control decreases. Several factors, including anxiety about winning and fear of injury, can cause stress in athletes. An athlete’s high mental toughness is closely related to their ability to easily cope with such stress factors. It is still a matter of curiosity how negative psychological factors affect emotional eating in athletes with low mental toughness. This study investigated the relationship between emotional eating and mental toughness in female wrestlers. Emotional Eating Questionnaire and Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire were applied to 69 female wrestlers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation tests. It was found that the participants were low emotional eaters and accepted all of the mental toughness sub-dimensions. There was a significant difference in emotional eating total score and “disinhibition" score according to nationality status (p<0.05). The findings suggested a positive and significant relationship between sub-dimensions of emotional eating and sub-dimensions of mental toughness (p<0.05). It was concluded that national female wrestlers tended to eat more emotionally than non-national athletes and had more difficulty preventing the urge to eat. As female wrestlers’ mental toughness levels increased, they tended to eat emotionally and felt guilty about eating.