Gender-based relationship between eating behavior and sense of coherence in Japanese young adults

Eating behavior is affected by stress and sense of coherence (SOC), the latter of which is reflective of one’s stress coping ability. Our objective in this study was to establish the gender-based relationship between the Eating Behavior Scale (EBS) and SOC. Participants were 334 Japanese undergraduate students. Overall scores on the 13-item SOC Scale (SOC-13) were higher for women than for men. There were significant negative correlations between EBS and SOC-13 scores for men, and a nonsignificant correlation between EBS and SOC-13 scores for women. Results of the correlation analyses indicated that there are gender-based differences in the relationship between eating behavior and SOC. Unhealthy eating behavior in men was associated with low stress coping ability; however, there was no such association in women.