Compassionate and Uncompassionate Self-responding and Disordered Eating in Sexual and Gender Diverse Adults

Objectives Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) individuals appear to be at elevated risk for disordered eating, including loss of control (LOC) eating and compensatory behaviors. Depressive symptoms are positively related to disordered eating, and facets of self-compassion, including compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding, serve as important moderators. However, these are not well-studied associations within the diverse SGD community. The current study evaluated how compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding are associated with and differentially moderate the link for depressive symptoms with LOC eating and compensatory behaviors among SGD adults. Method Data were collected in 2021 via Qualtrics Panels. The current study’s sample included 915 adults living in the USA ( M age = 36.7, SD = 18.9 years) who are diverse in regard to gender (38.4% cisgender women; 32.7% cisgender men; 29.0% gender diverse), sexual orientation (44.8% bisexual; 27.9% gay; 20.5% lesbian; 6.8% heterosexual), and race and ethnicity (30.8% non-Hispanic White; 32.6% Latino/a/x; 21.9% Black; 14.8% Multiracial). Analyses were conducted within the full sample and within SGD subgroups. Results Uncompassionate self-responding was most strongly related to LOC eating within the full sample and across SGD subgroups ( p s < 0.05) and, in sexually diverse cisgender women, compensatory behaviors ( p = 0.02). Compassionate self-responding was generally not related to disordered eating behaviors. High compassionate self-responding exacerbated the positive association between depressive symptoms and compensatory behaviors ( p < 0.05). Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of exploring the heterogeneity of SGD groups when examining LOC eating and compensatory behaviors, and the importance of examining compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding as distinct mindfulness-related experiences. Preregistration This study was not preregistered.