Eating Pathology in Sexual and Gender Minority Individuals: Prevalence, Related Sociocultural Factors, and Treatment
2 - (Sym 65) Body Image as a Predictor of Alcohol Use and Eating Pathology in Sexual Minority and Non-sexual Minority Men
Saturday, November 19, 2022
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EST
Location: Juilliard/Imperial, 5th Floor
Keywords: LGBTQ+, Eating, Body Image Recommended Readings: Calzo, J. P., Blashill, A. J., Brown, T. A., & Argenal, R. L. (2017). Eating disorders and disordered weight and shape control behaviors in sexual minority populations. Current psychiatry reports, 19(8), 49. Diemer, E. W., Grant, J. D., Munn-Chernoff, M. A., Patterson, D. A., & Duncan, A. E. (2015). Gender identity, sexual orientation, and eating-related pathology in a national sample of college students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 57(2), 144-149. McClain, Z., & Peebles, R. (2016). Body image and eating disorders among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Pediatric Clinics, 63(6), 1079-1090.
Assistant Professor Auburn University Auburn, Alabama
Eating disorders (EDs) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) often co-occur, with sexual minorities (SMs) reporting higher rates of both disorders compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Both EDs and AUDs have been hypothesized to function as maladaptive coping mechanisms. While body dissatisfaction may serve as a potential stressor for men, to our knowledge researchers have not investigated the link between body dissatisfaction and AUD in SM men. We were interested in whether sexual orientation would moderate the relationship between body image concerns for men (body fat, muscularity) and AUD and ED symptoms. Given increased SM stressors and increased appearance-based cultural pressures for SM men, we predicted that body dissatisfaction in SM men would have stronger associations with AUD and ED symptoms than in non-SM men. Data were drawn from 159 young men (SM = 78, non-SM = 81) who completed baseline assessments as part of two eating disorder prevention trials. The majority of participants identified as White (76%) and non-Hispanic/Latinx (80%). Regression analyses determined if SM status moderated associations between body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction predicting eating pathology and alcohol use problems. Separate models were run for muscularity and body fat concerns. Results supported that higher muscularity (p = .003) and body fat dissatisfaction (p < .001) predicted higher eating pathology, regardless of SM status. Higher body fat dissatisfaction also predicted higher alcohol use problems, regardless of orientation (p = .03). SM status significantly moderated the relationship between muscularity dissatisfaction and alcohol use (p = .01), such that higher muscularity dissatisfaction predicted more alcohol problems in SM men (p = .03), but not in non-SM men (p = .18). These results indicate that muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction in men with elevated body image concerns may be associated with eating pathology to similar degrees for both SM and non-SM men. Notably, while body fat dissatisfaction appears to be related to alcohol use across groups, muscularity dissatisfaction was only related to alcohol use in SM men. Increased cultural focus on muscularity for SM men may lead to increased alcohol use to cope. Alternatively, alcohol use problems may lead to muscularity dissatisfaction in SM men. Future research is needed to determine temporal association between these constructs. Given results from the present study, future research on AUD in young men should consider assessing for body image concerns.