Disordered eating across COVID-19 in LGBTQ+ young adults

Why is this research important? 
Disparities in body image, disordered eating, and eating disorders among sexual and gender minority (SGM) people can be understood within the framework of minority stress. This framework explains how daily experiences of stigma, discrimination, and victimization create stressors that significantly impact behavioural and physical health.  

Global circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have created a context of unprecedented instability since the start of the pandemic, and generalized anxiety, stressful life events, and trauma and abuse have increased for many people. At the same time, the pandemic simultaneously set up a context that decreased traditional supports and protective factors, likely exerting adverse effects on mental health, and people's relationships with food, eating, and their bodies may be particularly vulnerable. 

Given that people in the LGBTQ+ community, compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers, experience discrimination, stigma and minority stress and report higher rates of disordered eating and more negative impacts across a range of domains from COVID-19, it is particularly important to examine disordered eating during COVID-19 in this community. Job loss or insecurity, changes in schooling structure, and general financial instability related to COVID-19 disproportionately impacted LGBTQ+ young adults leading to added stress and financial hardship in this community. This research aimed to better understand whether and the degree to which disordered eating behaviours (DEB) changed across COVID-19 within an LGBTQ+ sample. 
 
Authors: Erica A. Hart, Alex Rubin, Kiki M. Kline, and Kathryn R. Fox 
 
Abstract/Summary: 
Background: Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is negatively affecting mental health, especially for sexual and gender minority populations. Relatively little is known about the impact of the pandemic on disordered eating behaviors (DEB) for these populations. The aim of this study is to understand changes in DEB across COVID-19 within an LGBTQ+ sample, with a particular focus on differences across sexual and gender identities, and the impact of social support on these outcomes. 
Results: In a sample of 830 LGBTQ+ adults with a past year history of DEB, most, but not all, participants reported that the frequency of and urge to engage in each DEB increased a little bit or a lot during COVID-19. Contrary to research showing more severe psychopathology and DEB among gender minorities (GM) compared to sexual minorities (SM), changes in DEB severity since COVID-19 were not significantly different between SM and GM participants. There were a few small and significant relationships between changes in average DEB severity and characteristics of interpersonal relationships, average quality of home relationships, and living with someone not affirming of one's identity.  
Conclusion: Results highlight that COVID-19 may have exacerbated DEB for SGM young adults, that these changes were not different across sexual versus gender minorities, and that these changes are weakly but significantly related to minority stressors. 

Access: Open 
 
Link:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8655496/  

Citation: Hart, E. A., Rubin. A., Kline, K.M., and Fox, K.R (2022). Disordered eating across COVID-19 in LGBTQ+ young adults. Eating Behaviour, 44:101581. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2021.101581. Epub 2021 Nov 23. PMID: 34896869; PMCID: PMC8655496.