About shape and race: anti-fat bias, functionality appreciation, collective racial self-esteem, and disordered eating among queer men of color.

Abstract

Current research suggests that queer men of color's experiences with disordered eating are understudied compared to their White and heterosexual counterparts, a gap in the literature due to how experiences of racism that may increase queer men of color's risk for disordered eating. The present study aims to understand the role of three pertinent psychological factors related to body image (i.e. anti-fat bias, functionality appreciation) and race (i.e. collective racial self-esteem) in queer men of color's disordered eating. The present study also examined the potential mediating role of appearance comparisons in the aforementioned associations. The present study included 301 queer men of color with a mean age of 31.80 years who completed an online survey that consisted of our primary study variables. We then conducted regression and mediation analyses which revealed that anti-fat attitudes were both directly positively associated with disordered eating as well as indirectly positively associated with disordered eating via appearance comparisons. Collective racial self-esteem was directly negatively associated with disordered eating and indirectly negatively associated via appearance comparisons. Functionality appreciation was negatively indirectly associated with disordered eating via appearance comparisons and not directly associated with disordered eating. Our findings highlight the importance of dismantling anti-fat attitudes, as well as bolstering collective racial self-esteem and functionality appreciation, to minimize disordered eating among the under‑researched population of queer men of color.