Abstract
Stress has been shown to be a risk factor for anxiety especially among college-aged individuals. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric problem among college students. This study looked at the relationship between stress, unhealthy eating and anxiety, moderated by depression. Further, we hoped to determine whether this relationship differed between the two types of anxiety: anxious arousal and anxious apprehension. We hypothesized that (1) both subtypes of anxiety would increase as stress increases; (2) unhealthy eating would mediate the relationship between stress and both subtypes of anxiety; and (3) depression would moderate the relationship between unhealthy eating and both subtypes of anxiety.\r Methods: We used self-report questionnaires that asked participants (ages 18-23, N=103) to rate the frequency of stress, unhealthy eating, anxiety and depression longitudinally across the span of a semester. Total effect, mediation and moderated mediation models were tested in Mplus with separate models predicting anxious arousal and anxious apprehension.\r Results: When controlling for baseline anxiety, unhealthy eating did not mediate the relationship between stress and end of semester anxiety. However, unhealthy eating did predict an increase in anxious arousal over time.\r Discussion: These results highlight the possible role of unhealthy eating as a risk factor for anxious arousal based on the evidence that unhealthy eating predicted longitudinal increases in anxious arousal but not anxious apprehension