Minority Stress and Binge Eating Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that lesbian and bisexual (LB) women report more binge eating behaviors compared to heterosexual women although the explanations for this disparity are not well understood. LB women also experience distal (e.g., discrimination) and proximal (e.g., expectations of rejection) minority stressors that are related to negative mental and physical health outcomes. The present study investigated the association between minority stressors and binge eating behaviors in LB women. A sample of 164 LB women completed an online survey that included measures of distal and proximal sexual minority stressors, emotional-focused coping, social isolation, negative affect, and binge eating. The resultant model partially supported both the psychological mediation framework and the affect regulation model. The principal finding was that among LB women, proximal stressors were associated with social isolation and emotion-focused coping, which in turn were associated with negative affect and ultimately binge eating. Overall, the study provides evidence that minority stress is associated with binge eating and may partially explain the disparity in binge eating between LB and heterosexual women.

Eating disorders symptoms in sexual minority women: A systematic review

“…The same tendency was found by Striegel‐Moore et al () in a college student sample. Conversely, no differences were found by Mason and Lewis () and Bayer et al () in volunteer samples.…”

Pathways to Hazardous Drinking Among Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Lesbian Women

“…The FS included six items and participants responded to items on a 5-point scale with responses ranging from 1 ( almost always ) to 5 ( not at all ) with higher scores indicating more social isolation. A sample item is, “I feel isolated from other people.” Mason and Lewis (2015) demonstrated validity of the FS with positive correlations with negative affect among lesbian and bisexual women. The Cronbach's alpha in the current study was .82.…”

Rumination and eating disorder psychopathology: A meta-analysis

“…As previously stated, the majority of these studies utilized cross-sectional designs and non-clinical samples of predominantly Caucasian women, which limits conclusions that can be drawn regarding temporal relationships and raises concerns about generalizability to clinical samples and other demographic groups. However, one study found that rumination was similarly predictive of binge eating among both African American and Caucasian women (Mason & Lewis, 2016), and two studies have assessed rumination in relation to ED symptoms in sexual minority samples (Mason & Lewis, 2015; Wang & Borders, 2016). While some of the cross-sectional studies reviewed employed mediational designs, the methodology of such studies precludes causal inferences.…”