Differences in Thinness- and Muscularity-Oriented Eating and Body Image Disturbances and Psychosocial Well-Being in Chinese Sexual Minority Men Reporting Top, Bottom, and Versatile Sexual Self-Labels

In addition to describing sexual partner preferences, sexual self-labels in gay and bisexual (henceforth, sexual minority) men, such as top, bottom, and versatile, are associated with psychological characteristics (e.g., gendered personality traits). No research has explored the association between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances in sexual minority men. Research in sexual minority men from China is particularly valuable and needed due to recent rises in rates of eating and body image disturbances and unique, minority-specific stressors experienced by Chinese sexual minority populations. We adopted an online, cross-sectional study in a sample of sexual minority men from China (N = 403; tops, n = 256, bottoms, n = 95, versatiles, n = 52). Bottoms reported higher thinness internalization, lower muscularity internalization, higher body fat dissatisfaction, and higher psychological distress than tops. Bottoms’ weight bias internalization was higher than tops’ and versatiles’ reports and, compared to versatiles, bottoms also reported higher psychosocial impairment related to eating disorder psychopathology. Compared to versatiles, tops reported higher drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating. Adjusting for age, psychological distress, and psychosocial impairment, tops reported higher muscularity internalization than bottoms and higher drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating than both bottoms and versatiles. Findings suggested unique relations between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances in Chinese sexual minority men. Replication and validation of the temporal order between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances is needed, including assessment of social factors (e.g., femmephobia, minority stress) that may help explain the links between sexual self-labels and eating pathology.