The Contribution of Social Media to Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms, and Anabolic Steroid Use among Sexual Minority Men

Abstract

Social media has been associated with body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms among young women and adolescent girls. However, despite notable evidence of susceptibility to body image pressures, it remains unknown whether these associations generalize to sexual minority men. A nationwide sample of 2,733 sexual minority men completed an online survey advertised to Australian and New Zealand users of a popular dating app. Participants answered questions about how frequently they used 11 different social media platforms in addition to questions about their dating app use, body image, eating disorder symptoms, and anabolic steroids. Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat were the m..