(PS5-73) The Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation in ACEs and Food Addiction Among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract Text: Early life stressors are significantly associated with an increased risk of Food Addiction among overweight and obese adults (Osadchiy et al., 2019). Previous research demonstrates that difficulties in emotion regulation (DERS) mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and Food Addiction, suggesting that emotion dysregulation may be an important mechanism linking adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to food addiction (Hoover et al., 2022). Although there has been a study linking Food Addiction among individuals with type two diabetes (Horsager et al., 2023), there is a gap in the literature exploring the impact of emotion regulation in relationship with ACEs and Food Addiction among this population. Our study aimed to investigate the indirect relationship between ACEs and Food Addiction via emotion regulation domains (e.g., lack of emotional awareness, engaging in goal-directed behaviors) among adults with type 2 diabetes - a population that is at high risk of dysregulated eating behavior yet has been overlooked in this area of research. Participants were recruited from a web-based panel of adults with type 2 diabetes and completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-16 (Bjureberg et al., 2017), the Yale Food Addiction Scale (Gearhardt et al., 2016), and Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (Cronholm et al., 2015). Participants (N = 353) were primarily female (64.5%) and White (79.3%) were mainly female (64.5%) and White (79.3%) and ranged from 20 to 87 years old (M= 58.86, SD=14.13). There was a direct relationship between ACEs and Food addiction (B = 0.11, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [0.04-0.18]). Among the indirect relationships, lack of emotional awareness (B = 0.07, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [0.02-0.12]) and impulse control difficulties (B = 0.07, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [0.02-0.14]) emerged as significant mediators in the relationships between ACEs and Food Addiction. These findings have potential implications for the treatment of food addiction among individuals with type 2 diabetes who have experienced childhood trauma. The present findings indicate that specific interventions targeting emotional awareness and impulse control may help mitigate food addiction symptomology among this vulnerable population.