Dating apps, sexual orientation, and male body image: An investigation in Singaporean and Swedish samples
2022 (English)In: Psychology of men & masculinity, ISSN 1524-9220, Vol. 23, no 1, p. 143-149Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Current evidence suggests that dating app users experience greater body dissatisfaction than nonusers. However, these were mostly based on studies of sexual minority men (SMM) or studies that did not consider the effects of sexual orientation. In this study, we reexamined the association between dating app use and male body image using two culturally diverse samples, taking into account the potential confounding or moderating effect of sexual orientation. Male participants from Singapore (n = 201; 71 users) and Sweden (n = 279; 108 users) completed an online survey on dating app use and measures of body image disturbance and dissatisfaction. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that while dating app use indeed predicted overall dissatisfaction and muscularity dissatisfaction in the Singaporean sample, and body image disturbance, overall dissatisfaction, and height dissatisfaction in the Swedish sample, this ceased to be the case after we controlled for sexual orientation, except for height dissatisfaction in the Swedish sample. A moderation effect was also found in the Swedish sample: while SMM users had greater muscularity dissatisfaction than nonusers, this difference was not seen for heterosexual men. This study highlights the importance of considering both sexual orientation and cultural differences in the relationship between dating app use and body image.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Psychological Association (APA) , 2022. Vol. 23, no 1, p. 143-149
Keywords [en]
body image, men, mobile dating apps, cross-cultural, sexual orientation
National Category
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-96226DOI: 10.1037/men0000352ISI: 000733059300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85108384079OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-96226DiVA, id: diva2:1625490
Note
Funding agency:
Kent Ridge (Undergraduate) Merit Scholarship from the National University of Singapore
2022-01-072022-01-072023-12-08Bibliographically approved