ArticleEuropean eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association2025
Investigating the structure of disordered eating symptoms in adult men: A network analysis.
Article in European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Idealized Body Images and Fitness Lifestyles on Social Media: A Systematic Review Exploring the Link Between Social Media Use and Symptoms of Orthorexia Nervosa and Muscle Dysmorphia.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of peer and media pressure on muscle dysmorphia for men and women in the general German population is mediated by the internalization of muscularity ideals.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Eating Disorders in Boys and Men: A Gender-Critical Narrative Review on Recognition, Stigma, and Treatment.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- Network Influence vs. Credibility in YouTube Sleep-Health Communication.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Associations between socio-demographic patterns, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder risk in women: a cluster-based approach.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Higher and Lower Endorsement of Eating Disorder Symptoms Among Adolescents and Their Caregivers.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Article
- Orthorexia nervosa and exercise addiction: distinct entities beyond restrictive and muscularity-oriented disordered eating behaviours?Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Do we need to "man up" feeding and eating disorders treatments? Protocol for a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of gender effects on intervention outcomes.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Evaluating the muscularity-oriented eating test: Factor structure and psychometric properties among university athletes and across sexes.Eating behaviors · 2025Article
- Using the Chinese Version of the Screen for Disordered Eating to Assess Disordered Eating: Reliability, Validity and Correlates.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Boys don't try? Gendered stigma specifically reduces help-seeking for disordered eating in men, but not women.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- The impact of masculinity and femininity on disordered eating symptoms and the mediating role of muscularity ideals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Muscularity Concerns and Disordered Eating Symptoms in Adult Women: A Network Analysis.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Article
- Five Decades of Eating Disorder Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publication Trends, Research Themes, and the Relationship Between Public and Academic Attention (1975-2024).The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Investigating the structure of disordered eating symptoms in adult men: A network analysis.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Article
- Invisible walls? Stigma-related perceptions are associated with reduced help-seeking intentions for disordered eating in men.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveEating disorders (EDs) increasingly emerge as a health risk in men, but there is concern that men's symptoms go unnoticed due to stereotypical perceptions and gender-related differences in symptom presentation. Novel assessments focused particularly on attitudes and behaviours towards increasing muscle size and definition. Using network analysis, this study aimed to corroborate and extend previous findings on disordered eating presentation in men by examining the role of muscularity concerns among an extended range of disordered eating symptoms.
methodN = 294 adult men (18 years or older) completed muscularity-related and disordered eating assessments, among which we included assessments for orthorexic eating and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder for the first time. We selected symptoms empirically, estimated a regularised network, identified symptom communities, evaluated network loadings and bridge centrality estimates, and compared network structures between different groups of participants.
resultsWe identified five symptom communities related to muscularity-related concerns, features of core ED psychopathology, and selective eating. Symptoms regarding ruminating about healthy eating, guilt for unhealthy eating, weight overvaluation, concerns about muscularity, and selective eating emerged as highly central. DISCUSSION: The results largely corroborate previous observations but suggest that muscle-building behaviours are part of a broader cluster of male body shaping and rule-based dieting behaviours.
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