Body image concerns of gay men: the roles of minority stress and conformity to masculine norms

Abstract

The authors hypothesized that gay men's experiences of minority stress and their conformity to masculine norms would be associated with increased body image dissatisfaction and masculine body ideal distress. For this cross-sectional study, 357 gay males completed a Web-based survey, and 2 multiple regression analyses indicated that minority stress factors (i.e., internalized homophobia, expected stigma for being gay, and experiences of physical attack) were associated with body image dissatisfaction and masculine body ideal distress, accounting for 5% and 13% of the variance, respectively. Gay men's conformity to masculine norms was not associated with body image dissatisfaction but did uniquely explain an additional 3% of variance in masculine body ideal distress scores. The utility of the minority stress model, how traditional masculinity may contribute to gender-related presenting concerns, suggestions for developing and evaluating remedial and preventive interventions, limitations, and future research issues are discussed.