Sexual Minority Identity as a Moderator Between Body Image Concerns and Psychopathology

Sexual minorities experience mental illness (including anxiety and eating disorders) at higher rates than heterosexual individuals (Cochran et al., 2017; Hadland et al., 2014). However, mechanisms underlying these high rates of mental illness are poorly understood. The present research examined whether identifying as a sexual minority (vs. heterosexual) impacted the relationship between psychopathology and its known predictors, including body esteem and emotion regulation difficulties. I hypothesized that participants who identified as LGB would show a stronger relationship between body esteem and anxiety and eating disorder symptoms and a stronger relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and anxiety and eating disorder symptoms than heterosexual participants. I recruited 195 LGB and 194 heterosexual adults online via MTurk. Participants completed a series of online questionnaires that measured body esteem, emotion regulation, and symptoms of eating disorders, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare sexual minority and heterosexual scores on each measure. The Hayes PROCESS macro was utilized to examine the hypothesized moderation effects. As predicted, LGB participants experienced significantly higher worry, difficulties with emotion regulation, and symptoms of disordered eating, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety compared to heterosexuals; they also experienced lower body esteem than heterosexuals. Sexual minority identity moderated the relationships between several body esteem subscales and social anxiety, as well as between body esteem and dieting behaviors. Identity moderated the relationship between maladaptive emotion regulation and social anxiety, but not generalized anxiety. These findings highlight the important role of sexual orientation in understanding mechanisms underlying an individuals' psychopathology, and thus have critical implications for the provision of targeted, effective interventions.Psychology Undergraduate Research Summer FellowshipCollege of Arts and Sciences Research ScholarshipA one-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Psycholog