Aim: Depression symptoms play a major role in eating disorders; however, research shows that non-adaptive emotion regulation strategy is also associated with depression symptoms. The current study examined the mediating role of the emotion regulation strategy on the relationship between depression symptom and disordered eating among students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 on a sample of 264 female students at Allameh Tabatabaie University, according to Morgan and Cluster samplings. The participants completed the questionnaires of depression, emotion regulation and eating attitudes test. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using coefficient correlation and stepwise regression. Statistical differences were considered significant at P<0.01.
Findings: The results showed that there was a significant correlation among emotion regulation difficulties, depression symptom and disordered eating (p<0.01). Also regression analysis indicated that emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between depression symptoms and disordered eating (p<0.01).
Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, examining the role of emotion regulation strategies on the relationship between depression symptoms and eating disorders indicated that eating disorder is the regulating mechanism in reducing depression.