2 - (SYM 145) Valence over Frequency: Examining the Associations Between Status, Community Involvement, and Intraminority Body Stigma in a Size-diverse Sample of Gay Men

Introduction: Eating disorder (ED) awareness is low. We assessed if ED recognition, treatment referral, perceived distress, perceived acceptability, and perceived prevalence differed depending on the gender of the individual with the ED.

Method: 276 participants were randomly assigned to one of three gender conditions (female, male, and non-binary), read three vignettes describing three different individuals with an ED [anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED)], and then answered a series of questions related to participants’ ED recognition, treatment referral, perceived distress, perceived acceptability, and perceived prevalence.

Results: A series of five 3 x 3 ANOVAs and a chi-square analysis revealed no significant main effects of gender condition across the outcome variables. There were main effects of ED type for problem recognition, treatment referral, perceived level of distress, and perceived prevalence, with participants being more likely to recognize a problem in the AN and BN vignettes than the BED vignettes, refer for treatment and rate a higher perceived level of distress in then AN vignette than the BN and BED vignettes, and perceive a higher prevalence rate in the BN vignette than the AN vignette. There was a significant gender by condition interaction for perceived prevalence, with participants rating a higher prevalence of AN in women and non-binary individuals than men and a higher prevalence of BN in women than non-binary individuals and men.

Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of education on EDs and awareness that EDs can occur in any individual, regardless of their gender identification.