The role of the brain's reward system in overweight and obesity: Investigating mediating role of emotional eating in relationship between sensivity to reward and overweight

The prevalence of obesity in the world is rising. Among the various influential factors, sensitivity to rewards as a psycho-biological personality trait which is rooted in dopamine pathways can be a major contributor to food habits. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between sensitivity to reward with overweight and obesity and also the mediating role of emotional eating in their relationship.
the research method is descriptive correlation type. The research Statistical Society have consisted of all high schools the city of Rasht. The sample have consisted of 650 students (400 girls and 250 boys) that selected with clustered sampling and were asked to complete sensitivity to reward and emotional eating scales and also used the balance for measurement of weight. To investigate the hypothesis, regression was used.
The results showed the relationship between high sensitivity to reward with overweight is significantly positive and emotional eating have a mediating role in their relationship. Also, the relation between low sensitivity to reward with obesity is significantly positive.
The results of this research confirmed the role of the brain's reward system in the body weight