Childhood gender nonconformity and body dissatisfaction in gay and heterosexual men

Although researchers have long hypothesized a relation between gender role orientation (i.e., masculinity and feminity) and body dissatisfaction, find ings have been inconsistent. The current study employed a measure of recall ed childhood gender nonconformity to examine gender role behaviors in assoc iation with body dissatisfaction among ethnically diverse (76% Caucasian, 2 % African American, 8% Asian, and 16.45 Hispanic American) group of predomi nantly college-aged males of both homosexual (n = 129) and heterosexual (n = 52) orientation. Consistent with past research, gay males reported more b ody dissatisfaction, however, disappeared when childhood gender nonconformi ty was statistically controlled, suggesting childhood atypical gender role behavior may place males at greater risk for adult body dissatisfaction. A within-group analysis also found that a "high feminine" subtypes of gay mal es had body dissatisfaction than "less feminine" subtypes had. Results supp ort greater assertion that gender role behaviors may contribute to body dis satisfaction among gay males.