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The centrality of physical appearance in dating app environments may constitute an appearance-related pressure that increases the likelihood of body dissatisfaction BD and disordered eating DE , thus exacerbating the relationship between DE-predictive traits and DE itself. To address these gaps, the current study investigated whether dating app usage moderated the effects of appearance-based rejection sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, emotion dysregulation, and perceived social rank on DE.
DE was positively associated with female gender, higher body mass index, a history of eating disorder ED diagnosis, appearance-based rejection sensitivity, and emotion dysregulation. There was a small, positive association between dating app usage and DE, indicating that dating app users were more likely to report DE symptoms, appearance-based rejection sensitivity, and emotion dysregulation.
No investigated predictor was moderated by dating app usage, but four of the six measured motivations for using dating apps love, self-worth, ease of communication, and thrill of excitement motivations were associated with DE among the dating app user sample casual sex and trendiness motivations were not.
Given that DE behaviours can lead to EDs, the present findings suggest that lifetime dating app usage may increase socio-cultural appearance pressures that confer risk for DE. Existing research evidence, although scant, has linked dating app use to body dissatisfaction BD and disordered eating DE.
