Greater Intraminority Stressors Predict Body Dissatisfaction, Cognitive Restraint, and More Muscle Building One Month...

Sexual minoritized men (SMM) report elevated eating disorder (ED) symptoms relative to their heterosexual counterparts, with emerging research highlighting the important role of identity-specific stressors to clarify these health disparities. Intraminority, or within-community stress, is a framework describing identity-specific stress among SMM, including pressures to compete, exclusion of diverse SMM, engagement in no-frills sex over meaningful relationships, and overvaluation of status (e.g., wealth) in the community. Largely cross-sectional research supports positive associations between intraminority stress and ED symptoms among SMM; however, our understanding of the temporal directionality of these associations, with specific attention to the multidimensionality of intraminority stress, is limited.

SMM (N = 188; M_age = 30.48 (SD = 9.48); 43.3% gay, 56.6% bi+) were recruited from Prolific and completed validated self-report measures at baseline (T1) and 1-month follow-up (T2). Using a data-driven approach, significant bivariate associations between T1 intraminority stressors and T2 ED symptoms were further examined with multivariable regressions.

Adjusting for T1 sociodemographics, T1 sexual minority stress (heterosexist discrimination), and T1 levels of the outcome variable, three significant main effects were identified: higher T1 competition intraminority stress predicted T2 cognitive restraint, higher T1 sex intraminority stress predicted T2 body dissatisfaction, and higher T1 status intraminority stress predicted more T2 muscle building in SMM.

Dimensions of intraminority stress (e.g., competition, sex, and status) uniquely predicted ED symptoms in SMM. Findings provide preliminary support for prevention efforts to consider unique manifestations of within-community stress as sources of identity-specific stress relevant to ED symptoms in SMM.