The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress and Loneliness in the Relationship Between Religious Coping, Burnout, and Emotional Eating

Stressors inherent to modern life can result in adverse outcomes, including feelings of loneliness and burnout. The ongoing effects of COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated socio-economic instability, elevated individuals’ perceptions of stress and loneliness, and impacted their coping mechanisms consequently. During this process, individuals may adopt coping mechanisms such as religious/spiritual coping based on spiritual reframing or more hedonistic strategies which seek rapid emotional change such as emotional eating. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine the mediating role of perceived stress and loneliness in the relationship between positive and negative religious coping (RC), burnout, and emotional eating. A total of 263 Turkish university students, aged between 18 and 27, participated in this correlational study. The results showed that positive RC strategies are associated with a reduction in feelings of loneliness and burnout. However, loneliness entirely increasing the level of negative correlation through mediating the relationship between positive RC and perceived stress. In contrast, there is a significant indirect positive correlation between negative RC and burnout via loneliness and perceived stress, while positive RC has a significant direct negative correlation with burnout. The present study shows that there is a significant level of positive correlation between burnout and emotional eating. Positive RC indirectly declines the level of emotional eating through loneliness, perceived stress, and burnout, and similarly negative RC also increases the level of emotional eating indirectly. These findings emphasize the critical role of a comprehensive evaluation of psychological and spiritual support mechanisms in the development of psychoeducational programs to cope with burnout and stress.