Longitudinal study links evaluative fears, ego depletion and abnormal eating behavior

A three-wave longitudinal study of 351 Chinese college students found that fear of negative evaluation and fear of positive evaluation predicted later ego depletion, which was associated with higher abnormal eating behavior at a subsequent wave. The authors described ego depletion as a potential longitudinal mediator linking the two forms of evaluative fear with abnormal eating behavior.

Participants completed the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale and the Ego Depletion Scale at three time points. The researchers used cross-lagged panel models to examine longitudinal associations among evaluative fear, ego depletion and abnormal eating behavior. Significant autoregressive effects were observed for all variables, indicating that the models accounted for each measure’s association with its earlier value.

For fear of negative evaluation, the model showed that the time-one measure predicted increased ego depletion at time two (β = 0.27, p < .001). Ego depletion at time two, in turn, predicted higher abnormal eating behavior at time three (β = 0.08, p < .05). A similar statistical pattern appeared for fear of positive evaluation: time-one fear of positive evaluation predicted increased ego depletion at time two (β = 0.29, p < .001), and time-two ego depletion predicted higher time-three abnormal eating behavior (β = 0.09, p < .05).

The findings come from a self-report observational study in one student population, and the longitudinal model estimates do not establish that evaluative fear causes ego depletion or abnormal eating behavior. The supplied evidence is limited to the article abstract and does not provide details about attrition, potential confounders, effect sizes beyond the reported coefficients or the measures’ absolute levels. The authors proposed that interventions addressing evaluative fear and self-regulatory functioning may help reduce vulnerability to abnormal eating behavior among college students, but the abstract does not report testing such interventions.

Subject of Research: Longitudinal associations among evaluative fear, ego depletion and abnormal eating behavior in Chinese college students

Article Title: Fear of negative and positive evaluation predicts abnormal eating behavior: ego depletion as a longitudinal mediator

Article References: Wu, Q., Huang, H., Liu, S., Chen, Y., & Zeng, H. (2026). Fear of negative and positive evaluation predicts abnormal eating behavior: ego depletion as a longitudinal mediator. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05778-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05778-7

Keywords: evaluative fear, ego depletion, abnormal eating behavior, longitudinal study, college students, cross-lagged panel models, self-report, statistical mediation, Fear, negative, positive, evaluation