Longitudinal Associations Between Dating App Use, Sexual Racism, and Mental Health among Black and Latinx Gay and Bisexual Men: The Protective Roles of General Social Support and Identity-Specific Community Connection

Abstract

Objectives:

To identify contextual factors that harm and protect the mental health of Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, this study examined (1) associations between dating app use and psychological distress over time mediated by sexual racism, with (2) moderation by different sources of supportive social connections (i.e., general social support, gay community connection, and racial/ethnic community connection).

Method:

Using three waves of the Healthy Young Men’s (HYM) Cohort Study with Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men (N=412), multiple moderated mediation path analyses were tested.

Results:

Dating app use was associated with more sexual racism, and sexual racism was positively associated with psychological distress. High, but not low, racial/ethnic community connection diminished the effects of sexual racism on psychological distress, and social support from family and friends and gay community connection did not. Furthermore, the indirect effect of dating app use on psychological symptoms through sexual racism was significant. All social support indicators modified this indirect effect, such that the indirect effects were significant only at low values of general social support and at low racial/ethnic and gay community connection.

Conclusions:

For Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, the impact of dating app use on psychological distress may occur through elevated experiences of sexual racism. These associations may be diminished with greater access to general social support and community connection. Findings highlight the dual need for reducing racism on dating apps and for increasing access to general and community-specific forms of social connection and support.

Geosocial networking mobile technologies designed to connect people online for the purpose of meeting romantic and sexual partners (i.e., dating apps) are increasingly popular in the United States (Castro & Barrada, 2020), especially among gay and bisexual men (Badal et al., 2018; Shepherd et al., 2024). Concurrent to increases in dating app use, mental health concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety) are on the rise, with one nationally representative study suggesting that half of the world’s population will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime (McGrath et al, 2023) and another study finding depression morbidity may exceed HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men in the US (Bromberg et al., 2021). Indeed, a recent systematic review found that dating app use has largely negative implications for mental health and well-being (e.g., greater psychological distress, lower life satisfaction; Holtzhausen et al., 2020; Obarska et al., 2020; Zervoulis et al., 2019), with 86% of studies reporting a significant association between dating app use and worse body image (Bowman et al., 2025). However, the association between dating app use and mental health remains underexplored among historically underrepresented and marginalized groups such as gay and bisexual men, especially Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men (Castro & Barrada, 2020; Freire et al., 2023; Zervoulis et al., 2019), who face additional social challenges when online dating (e.g., race-based discrimination; Ma et al., 2024).

Dating apps—including apps intended for finding romantic or sexual partners—can provide a platform for gay and bisexual men of varying cultural backgrounds to connect with one another to satisfy social and sexual needs in a predominantly heteronormative society (Diamond & Alley, 2022; Grey et al., 2024; Pachankis et al., 2020; Zervoulis et al., 2019). Some evidence even suggests that, perhaps through increased opportunities for authentic and intimate connections, dating apps can be a tool for coping with the stress of marginalization, buffering against adverse mental health outcomes (Dhoest, 2022; Cargnino & Lemke, 2023). This may especially be true for gay and bisexual men who would otherwise not be able to explore or disclose their sexual identity publicly for fear of discrimination and victimization (Pachankis & Bränström, 2018). However, using dating apps—especially more frequently—may concurrently expose gay and bisexual men to racism manifested through multiple forms of anti-Black and anti-Latinx prejudice, stigma, and discrimination and additional biases against other intersecting identities or phenotypical characteristics (e.g., age, body size, and shape; Hammack et al., 2021; Rosengren et al., 2019; Shepherd et al., 2024). These experiences of racism may adversely shape gay and bisexual men’s perceptions of the broader gay and bisexual community and, by extension, perceptions of themselves (Pachankis et al., 2020; Shepherd, Maki, et al., 2023; Shepherd et al., 2025).

For Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, sexual racism is a common experience associated with worse mental health outcomes (Chiu, 2023; Hidalgo et al., 2020). Sexual racism includes discrimination—both exclusion and objectification—in romantic or sexual partner selection based on perceived racial or ethnic identity (Callander et al., 2015; Han, 2007; Stember, 1978). Because sexual racism includes both dimensions of exclusion and objectification (Wade et al., 2021), Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men may experience both racially-motivated rejection and racially-motivated sexualization of their bodies and cultures. These experiences of sexual racism oppress and disempower Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men by reducing their value and desirability to their perceived race, ethnicity, or physical features, thereby denying them access to the social connections they seek and, in turn, eroding their mental health (Hidalgo et al.,2020). Guided by minority stress theory (Brooks, 1981; Meyer, 2003), sexual objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997), the social support buffering hypothesis (Cohen & Willis, 1985), and intersectionality (Crenshaw 1989, 1991), the current study sought to contextualize and add nuance to prior research on the association between dating app use and mental health (Freire et al., 2023) by (1) examining sexual racism as a mechanism that contributes to psychological distress for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men using dating apps and (2) whether gay and racial/ethnic community connection and general social support might mitigate this harm.

Minority Stress Theory, Intersectionality, and Sexual Racism

Minority stress theory (Brooks, 1981; Meyer, 2003) posits that discrimination, exclusion and rejection by others, anxious expectations of rejection, and other manifestations of identity-based stigma (e.g., internalized stigma, identity concealment) add a unique layer of stress that contributes to the creation and maintenance of mental health disparities. Intersectionality provides a complementary framework to investigate how overlapping systems of power, privilege, and oppression generate and maintain health disparities among individuals who live at the nexus of multiple marginalized identities (Bauer, 2014; Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Moradi & Grzanka, 2017). Recent investigations examining how heterosexism and racism intersect to compound mental health risks across the lifespan (Layland et al., 2022, 2025; Mallory & Russell, 2021; McConnell et al., 2018; Sattler & Zeyen, 2021; Shepherd et al., 2025; Velez et al., 2019) suggest it is essential to consider the influence of experiences of “multiple minority stress” (Balsam et al., 2011, p. 4) when evaluating the mental health of multiply marginalized groups (e.g., gay and bi+ men of color; Hammack et al., 2021; Ramirez & Galupo, 2019). The vast body of minority stress research calls attention to the harms of heterosexism on the mental health of gay and bisexual men, and an intersectional framework extends this research further by foregrounding the unique minority stressors of gay and bisexual men of color due to the unique multiple forms of marginalization they experience outside and within their own communities.

In the context of gay and bisexual communities, racism may lead gay and bisexual men of color to expect rejection or racial fetishization (i.e., racist stereotyping that reduces people of color to sexualized objects by demonizing and idolizing racial features; Buggs, 2017; hooks, 1992) by other gay and bisexual men when seeking romantic and sexual partners (Han & Choi, 2018). Sexual racism is a form of racism that encompasses ideologized and enacted exclusion and sexual objectification of racially and ethnically minoritized people based prejudicial stereotypes, especially stereotypes targeting racialized cultural and physical features (Callander et al., 2015; Wade & Pear, 2022a). For Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, sexual racism is often enacted by potential or current romantic and sexual partners, often White men, in diverse contexts where they may be seeking partners, such as dating apps (Callander et al., 2016; Conner, 2022; Stacey & Forbes, 2022) and gay and bisexual venues and bars (Ruez et al., 2017). Distinct from traditional conceptualizations of minority stress based in rejection and exclusion due to a stigmatized identity, sexual racism encompasses both exclusion and rejection based on race and ethnicity as well as the reduction of an individual’s value and desirability based on their race and ethnicity in the context of dating and sex.

Sexual Objectification Theory and Sexual Racism

Because sexual racism includes both dimensions of exclusion and objectification, it is important to consider specifically why objectification is distinct from exclusion and how it can psychologically harm Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men. Sexual objectification theory was originally developed to understand the psychological effects of society’s focus on women’s bodies (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997). This theoretical framework was expanded to help explain experiences of gay and bisexual men, including men of color, who also receive abundant sociocultural messages from inside and outside gay and bisexual communities that their worth is determined by the size, shape, and sexual appeal of their bodies (Hidalgo et al., 2020). Sexual racism targeting gay and bisexual men of color includes the objectification of Brown and Black bodies via messages that (de)value, exotify, and fetishize racialized cultural and physical features of men of color (Buggs, 2017; Stacey & Forbes, 2021). When internalized, these sexually-specific, dehumanizing racist stereotypes and beliefs are thought to increase people’s susceptibility to various forms of psychological distress by devaluing and taking their attention away from other aspects about themselves and their lives that would otherwise bolster their self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and mental health. In fact, a recent study found that the positive association between sexual racism and depression persisted only at higher self-reported internalized racism (Chiu, 2023). This line of empirical research combined with sexual objectification theory suggests sexual racism is a unique source of social stress that may impede gay and bisexual men of color’s ability to anticipate or feel acceptance and safety in a romantic or sexual relationship and belonging in the broader gay and bisexual community.

In the context of dating apps, a growing body of scholarly work suggests that, as a byproduct of larger systems of oppression that transcend heteronormative and nonheteronormative communities, gay and bisexual men who use dating apps to seek partners tend to favor profiles and users that appear more masculine, muscular, and White, among other status and sexual capital-relevant physical and social attributes, most of which are appearance-oriented (Austen et al., 2022; Hammack et al., 2021; Miller & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Shepherd, Denning, et al., 2023; Shepherd et al., 2024). In one study of men who have sex with men living in Australia, 96% of the sample reported seeing an online dating profile containing racially discriminatory messaging (Callander et al. 2015). Such messaging is often justified as a matter of “preference” without considering potential harms or origin in racialized hierarchies (Dellers et al., 2024; Han & Choi, 2018). Supporting and extending this finding, in a recent international sample of 2,159 gay men, there was a positive association between dating app use and racism experienced from other app users and that this association was significantly stronger for gay men of color relative to White gay men (Shepherd et al., 2024). Moreover, there is some evidence suggesting that different dating apps are distinctly associated with different types of sexual racism (e.g., White superiority and rejection from White men, physical objectification from Black men; Wade & Pear, 2022b). Given the often anonymous and overtly sexualized nature of these apps geared toward gay and bisexual men, sexual racism is particularly prevalent on these platforms (Stacy & Forbes, 2021). The prevalence of sexual racism in dating app use among gay and bisexual men is especially concerning given evidence that experiencing more frequent sexual racism has been linked to greater levels of mental health symptoms and suicide ideation (Hidalgo et al., 2020). Therefore, sexual racism during dating app use is a particularly relevant threat to mental health that warrants further investigation among gay and bisexual men of color, including identifying social protective factors that may buffer against these harms (Aguilera & Barrita, 2021; Hildalgo et al., 2020).

Social Support as a Buffer

The social support buffering hypothesis posits that human beings are better equipped to navigate and thrive in social environments, even stressful ones, through supportive relationships (Cohen & Willis, 1985). Stigmas perpetuated against gay and bisexual communities (e.g., heterosexism) limit gay and bisexual men’s access to social support (i.e., assistance or comfort from others; Diamond & Alley, 2022; Choi & Meyer, 2016; Wilson & Liss, 2022), a fundamental human need, but do not necessarily preclude people from accessing social support from various sources, including from within their own communities (Parmenter et al., 2023; Pulice-Farrow et al., 2024; Soulliard et al., 2022). Moreover, deriving strength and solidarity through identity-based group memberships (e.g., gay community, racial/ethnic community) can help prevent stigma and other life stressors from impacting health and well-being (Meyer, 2003, 2015; Muldoon et al., 2019; Quinn et al., 2022). However, little is known about the general and community-specific social support mechanisms that protect mental health for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men experiencing sexual racism.

Limited but growing research highlights the importance of identifying, understanding, and harnessing unique strengths at identity intersections in mental health disparity research (Chan & Mak, 2021; Katz et al., 2023). This perspective is necessary to prevent deficit-based, single-identity (mis)understandings of health disparities affecting multiply marginalized groups, such as Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men (Kler et al., 2023; Peel et al., 2023). A strength-based, intersectional approach may help researchers and clinicians address persistent mental health inequities by leveraging the strength and resilience gay and bisexual men of color have built in opposition to discrimination (Aguilera & Barrita, 2021; Mosley et al. 2021; Parmenter et al., 2024). From a social support buffering hypothesis perspective (Cohen & Willis, 1985), it is possible that Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men who encounter sexual racism online are less likely to experience psychological distress if they have access to social support in other contexts, both general (e.g., friends, family) and identity-specific (e.g., racial or ethnic community or gay community). However, this hypothesis remains untested, resulting in a knowledge gap that demonstrates a negative link between dating app use and mental health without investigating why that link exists or what community-based tools might disrupt that pathway.

Current Study

In a sample of Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, the current study examined, first, whether the longitudinal association between dating app use and psychological distress symptoms was mediated by sexual racism, and second, whether general social support and identity-specific community connections buffered the indirect effects of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism, as well as the effects of sexual racism on psychological distress. We tested the three hypotheses through the integrated lens of minority stress theory (Brooks, 1981; Meyer, 2003), intersectionality (Crenshaw 1989, 1991), sexual objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997), and the social support buffering hypothesis (Cohen & Willis, 1985). First, we hypothesized that the effect of baseline dating app use frequency on psychological symptoms one-year later would be fully mediated by sexual racism at 6-months. Second, we hypothesized that the indirect effect of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism would be significantly weaker at high levels of social connection and support, indicated by general social support (e.g., from family and friends), gay community connection, and racial/ethnic community connection. Third, we hypothesized that the longitudinal effect of sexual racism on psychological distress symptoms would be significantly weaker at higher than lower levels of each social support indicator.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Data were from waves 4 to 6 (2017 to 2020) of the Healthy Young Men’s (HYM) Cohort Study (N=412), a semiannual, longitudinal study in Los Angeles, California, with data for the current study focused on Black and Latinx sexual minoritized men (Kipke et al., 2019). Waves were six months apart, yielding one year of data (henceforth referred to as baseline, 6-month follow-up, 12-month follow-up). Recruitment through venue-based recruitment, social media, and participant and health clinic referrals identified individuals who were (1) 16 to 24 years; (2) assigned male sex at birth; (3) gay, bisexual, queer, same-gender loving, another minoritized sexual identity, or otherwise uncertain about their sexual identity; (4) Black or Latinx; (5) living in the Los Angeles area; and (6) reported past-year sex with a man. Ethical research approval was provided by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Participants provided written informed consent. Participant demographics are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Sample Demographics (n = 398)

Variable at baseline (Wave 4)
	%	n
Race/Ethnicity
Non-Black Latinx	59	234
Non-Latinx Black	22	87
Afro-Latinx	19	77
Sexual orientation
Gay	77	308
Bisexual	14	54
Another sexual identitya	9	36
Gender identity
Cisgender men	97	387
Gender-diverseb	3	11
Dating apps used
Jack’d	13	51
Grindr	57	228
Tinder	30	111
Scruff	11	44
GROWLr	3	10
Adam4Adam	7	26
Another dating appc	5	20
None	4	14
	M (SD)	Range
Age	24.02 (2.01)	18–27
No dating app usage	0.36 (0.48)	0–1
Highest dating app/website usage	1.74 (1.65)	0–4
Jack’d	2.98 (1.24)	1–5
Grindr	3.62 (1.30)	1–5
Tinder	3.06 (1.14)	1–5
Scruff	3.39 (1.21)	1–5
GROWLr	3.00 (1.16)	1–5
Adam4Adam	2.58 (1.27)	1–5
Another dating app	4.11 (0.88)	1–5

^aSome examples of “another sexual identity” specified by participants are “pansexual,” “queer,” and “questioning.”

^bThe term “gender-diverse” refers to participants who indicated a gender identity that is not congruent with their sex assigned at birth (e.g., transgender, gender non-conforming).

^cSome examples of “another dating app” specified by participants are “Bumble,” “Hinge,” and “OKCupid.”

Measures

Dating App Use.

At baseline, participants reported any past 6-month use of each of six different dating and hookup apps (Adam4Adam, Grindr, Growlr, Jackd, Scruff, Tinder) plus write-in responses. For each dating app—including write-ins—participants reported how frequently they used each app in the prior 6-months on a 5-point scale (1=never, 2=a few times a month, 3=a few times a week, 4=once a day, 5=multiple times a day). A participant-level dating app frequency score ranging from 0 to 4 was created based on frequency of use for the dating app each participant reported using most often, thereby approximating the highest individual frequency of dating app use across all platforms or apps. Any participant who reported never using dating apps in the past 6-month period received a score of zero.

Sexual Racism.

Participants reported how often they experienced past 6-month sexual racism using the six items from the sexual racism subscale (Hidalgo et al., 2020) of the broader measure of racism, homophobia, and poverty among men of color who have sex with men (Diaz et al., 2001). Sexual racism items assessed both dimensions of racially-motivated sexual and romantic exclusion (e.g., “How often have you been turned down for sex because of your race or ethnicity?”, “How often have you had trouble finding love or relationships because of your race or ethnicity?”) and sexual objectification (e.g., “How often have you been made to feel sexually objectified (like a piece of meat) because of your race or ethnicity?, “How often did you hear sexual comments about your race or ethnicity?”). Frequency was rated on a 4-point scale (0=never, 1=once or twice, 2=a few times, 3=multiple times). A sexual racism score was created by mean scoring all six items which demonstrated high internal consistency at wave 5 (α = 0.89).

Psychological Distress Symptoms

To measure psychological distress at baseline and 12-month follow-up, participants completed the 18-item Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 2000) which included severity of anxious symptoms (e.g., “feeling so restless you couldn’t sit still”), depressive symptoms (e.g., “feeling hopeless about the future”), and somatic symptoms (e.g., “faintness or dizziness”). Participants rated how bothered they were by each symptom over the past seven days on a scale from 0=not at all to 4=extremely. The global BSI score was created by summing all items which demonstrated high internal consistency across waves (α = 0.92– 0.94).

General social support.

At 6-month follow-up, general social support was measured using the two 4-item subscales of family and friend social support of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). Participants rated their agreement with four statements each about family support (e.g., “My family really tries to help me”) and friends support (e.g., “I can talk about my problems with my friends”) on a Likert scale ranging from 1=very strongly disagree to 7=very strongly agree. A social support score was created by averaging all eight items which demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.90).

Community connection.

At 6-month follow-up, participants rated how much they felt part of ‘‘a gay community’’ and part of their ‘‘racial/ethnic community’’ on four-point scales ranging from 1=not at all to 4=a lot. These items were drawn from focus group qualitative data collected in earlier stages of the HYM Cohort Study and used as single-item variables for gay community connection and racial/ethnic community connection.

Covariates.

In addition to previous levels of psychological distress, several demographic variables were measured as potential covariates in our analyses, namely race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age, all of which were self-reported by participants. Due to sample size restrictions and for ease of interpretation, race/ethnicity included three categories of non-Latinx Black, non-Black Latinx, and Afro-Latinx (i.e., mixed Black-Latinx) participants. In the tested models, participants who identified as non-Black Latinx were the reference group. Sexual orientation was analyzed as a dichotomous variable, coding participants as 0 (gay) and 1 (bisexual/plurisexual). Age was analyzed as a continuous variable (in years). These covariates were included because persons with bisexual, pansexual, queer, or other plurisexual identities (Ramirez & Galupo, 2019) and persons who are racially/ethnically minoritized (Espinoza et al., 2025) on average report worse mental health than their White and monosexual (i.e., gay) peers. In terms of age-based differences, symptoms of anxiety and depression generally decline over time among young adult Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx sexual minoritized men (Layland et al., 2025).

Data Analysis Plan

The current analysis was limited to HYM waves 4 to 6 due based to maximize fit of available data to secondary data analysis. First, some variables (i.e., community connection) were not available in all waves of data. Second, at wave 5 the recall period for sexual racism changed from lifetime to prior six months, allowing us to model sexual racism that occurred only in the six months after the wave 4 assessment of dating app use. Finally, wave 7 data collection occurred during the height of the COVID19 pandemic in mid-2020, thereby qualitatively shifting the context for later waves of data. Thus, data collection for waves 4 to 6 were not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Raw data was cleaned, scored, and checked for normal distributions. Non-normally distributed data were corrected for skewness prior to subsequent analyses. A series of bivariate and multivariate associations were conducted among the predictor (dating app use frequency), mediator (sexual racism), moderators (social support, gay community connection, racial/ethnic community connection), outcome (psychological distress), and demographic control variables (i.e., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age). Then we conducted three separate moderated mediation models (one for each social support indicator).

For mediation models, we first tested the indirect effect of baseline dating app use frequency on 12-month psychological symptoms, through 6-month sexual racism (a and b paths, respectively). We derived the indirect effect by multiplying the effect of dating app use on sexual racism by the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress symptoms (a × b). The indirect association between dating app use and psychological distress symptoms through sexual racism met mediation criteria if the 95% bias-corrected accelerated confidence intervals (BCa CIs) of the tested indirect effects did not include zero.

Second, we tested whether the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress symptoms was moderated by each social support indicator in separate models by adding an interaction term between sexual racism by each social support indicator (at b_i paths). All continuous variables were mean-centered prior to creating interaction terms. We evaluated the significance of the linear interaction effects at the b paths (sexual racism × social support indicators) with simple slope analyses at ±1 standard deviation of each moderator (social support, gay community connection, racial/ethnic community connection).

Third, we examined whether the indirect effect of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism was moderated by each social safely indicator. This test indicates whether strength of the indirect effect is dependent on each of the social support indicators. We used Hayes’ equation (Model 14) to calculate the conditional indirect effects of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism as a function of social support, gay community connection, and racial/ethnic community connection (at ±1SD and at the mean; Hayes, 2013):

$$\text{Conditional}\text{indirect}\text{effect}\text{of}X\text{on}Y\text{through}{M}_i=a_{1i}\left(b_{1i}+b_{3i}V\right)$$ (1)

$$\text{Direct}\text{effect}\text{of}X\text{on}Y=c^{\prime }$$ (2)

The three moderated mediation tests were fit as path models, using a structural equation framework, in the lavaan package (Rosseel, 2012) in R version 4.2.3 (R Core Team, 2019) adjusting for covariates. Missing data among respondents across waves occurred at a low frequency, with 5.3% of data missing overall. The missing completely at random test (Little, 1988) was not statistically significant, χ² (61) = 66.57, p = 0.291; therefore, data were assumed to be at least missing at random. Full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation was used to account for missing data (Widaman, 2006). Bootstrapping was used to obtain bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence intervals (95%BCa CIs) for the path model estimates to account for the nonnormality of the sampling distribution of the indirect effect (MacKinnon, 2008; MacKinnon et al., 2004; Montoya & Hayes, 2017; Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Model fit was assessed with the comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Model fit was considered acceptable if: CFI > .95, RMSEA < .06, and SRMR < .08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999).

Results

Of the analytical sample (N=412; ages 18 to 27 years old, M=24.02, SD=2.01), the baseline sample (n=398) consisted of 59% non-Black Latinx, 22% non-Latinx Black, and 19% mixed Black-Latinx. The most common sexual orientations were gay (77%) and bisexual (14%). Retention was high (6-month: n=412; 12-month: n=393). Participants lost to follow-up were invited to reengage at later waves. To contrast participants retained with those lost to follow-up, we used chi-squared and t-tests to contrast demographic differences in participants retained and lost to follow-up. On average, participants lost to follow-up were younger and more likely to be recruited through social media and dating apps than from other sources. There were no differences by psychological distress or race and ethnicity. For more detail on attrition analyses see Layland et al. (2025). At baseline, Grindr (57%) and Tinder (30%) were the most frequently used apps, 41% of the sample used multiple dating apps, and only 4% of participants reported never having used any dating apps. Sexual racism and depressive symptoms at Waves 4 and 6 were positively skewed and their non-normal distribution was corrected with square root transformations. Descriptive statistics and correlations (using normally distributed values) are presented in Table S1 (Supplemental Material).

Model A: Dating App Use, Sexual Racism, and General Social Support (Table 2)

Table 2.

Moderated Mediation Model A: Dating App Use (Wave 4) → Sexual Racism (Wave 5) → Psychological Distress Symptoms (Wave 6) by Social Support (Wave 5)

Outcome	Predictor	Label	β	est	se	p value	LCI	UCI
a path
Sexual racism	Dating app use frequency	a	0.204	0.068	0.017	0.000	0.035	0.101
	Black		0.202	0.272	0.070	0.000	0.136	0.409
	Afro-Latinx		0.157	0.213	0.072	0.003	0.072	0.354
b and c' paths
Psychological distress	Dating app use frequency	c'	0.102	0.116	0.061	0.058	−0.002	0.237
	Sexual racism	b 1	0.162	0.556	0.186	0.003	0.190	0.923
	Social support	b 2	−0.154	−0.255	0.091	0.005	−0.435	−0.077
	Sexual racism X Social Support	b 3	−0.066	−0.198	0.168	0.238	−0.523	0.137
	Non-gay identity (e.g., bisexual)		0.068	0.306	0.226	0.176	−0.143	0.738
Covariances
Dating app use frequency	Social support		0.100	0.186	0.094	0.049	0.003	0.376
	Psychological distress wave 4		0.125	0.347	0.144	0.016	0.067	0.630
	Age wave 4		0.127	0.418	0.155	0.007	0.122	0.734
Social support	Sexual racism		−0.097	−0.057	0.030	0.058	−0.114	0.003
	Psychological distress wave 4		−0.173	−0.329	0.095	0.001	−0.518	−0.142
	Age wave 4		0.080	0.181	0.119	0.127	−0.053	0.417
Sexual racism	Psychological distress wave 4		0.124	0.109	0.047	0.022	0.016	0.204
	Age wave 4		0.070	0.073	0.052	0.162	−0.029	0.176
Psychological distress	Psychological distress wave 4		0.460	1.398	0.180	0.000	1.063	1.762
Indirect and Total Effects at mean levels of social support (moderator)
Indirect effect		a*b	0.033	0.038	0.016	0.018	0.013	0.078
Total effect		c = c’+(a*b1)	0.135	0.153	0.060	0.010	0.039	0.271
Conditional Indirect and Total effects below and above 1SD of social support (moderator)
Indirect effects
Low Social support (-1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*-0.917)	0.048	0.053	0.025	0.034	0.013	0.114
High Social support (+1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*+0.917)	0.018	0.022	0.016	0.167	−0.004	0.061
Total effects
Low Social support (-1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*-0.917)	0.150	0.168	0.062	0.007	0.049	0.292
High Social support (+1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*+0.917)	0.120	0.138	0.060	0.022	0.022	0.256

Note. β = standardized beta coefficient; est = estimate of unstandardized coefficient; se = standard error; LCI = lower bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval; UCI = upper bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval. Significant CIs are presented in bold font.

The total effect (c) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress was positive and significant (b = .153, 95%BCa CIs = [.039, .271]). As illustrated in Figure 1a, dating app use frequency was positively associated with sexual racism (a path) (b = .068, 95%BCa CIs [.035, .101]). In turn, sexual racism was associated with heightened psychological distress (b path) (b = .556, 95%BCa CIs = [.190, .923]). With regards to the proposed moderator (b₂ path), combined social support from both family and friends was negatively associated with psychological distress (b = −.255, 95%BCa CIs = [−.435, −.077]). However, general social support did not moderate the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress (b = −.198, 95%BCa CIs = [−.523, .137]).

Figure 1. Moderated Mediation Models Predicting Psychological Distress.

Note. Parameter estimates reflect standardized beta coefficients adjusted for age, race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation. *p < .05 **p < .01 ***p < .001.

The indirect effect (a*b) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress through sexual racism was significant (b = .038, 95%BCa CIs = [.013, .078]). The direct effect (c’) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress dropped from significance (b = .116, 95%BCa CIs = [−.002, .237]), suggesting full mediation. Moreover, the indirect effect was moderated by social support a(b₁ + b_{3 *} ±1SD), such that indirect effect of dating app use frequency on psychological distress through sexual racism was strongest at low values of social support (−1SD) (b = .053, 95%BCa CIs = [.013, .114]) but was non-significant at high (+1SD) values of social support (b = .022, 95%BCa CIs = [−.004, .061]). This model showed a good fit to the data (χ² = 22.9, df = 16, p > .05; CFI = .971; RMSEA = .032, 90% CI = [.000, .059]; SRMR = .031), accounting for 9% of the variability in sexual racism and 7.4% in the variability of psychological distress.

Model B: Dating App Use, Sexual Racism, and Gay Community Connection (Table 3)

Table 3.

Moderated Mediation Model B: Dating App Use (Wave 4) → Sexual Racism (Wave 5) → Psychological Distress Symptoms (Wave 6) by Gay Community Connection (Wave 5)

Outcome	Predictor	Label	β	est	se	p value	LCI	UCI
a path
Sexual racism	Dating app use frequency	a	0.210	0.070	0.016	0.000	0.037	0.101
	Black		0.205	0.276	0.069	0.000	0.140	0.410
	Afro-Latinx		0.162	0.221	0.071	0.002	0.084	0.361
b and c' paths
Psychological distress	Dating app use frequency	c'	0.111	0.126	0.061	0.039	0.008	0.247
	Sexual racism	b 1	0.166	0.567	0.184	0.002	0.207	0.934
	Gay community connection	b 2	−0.136	−0.294	0.115	0.010	−0.513	−0.059
	Sexual racism X Gay community connection	b 3	−0.098	−0.360	0.198	0.069	−0.740	0.029
	Non-gay identity (e.g., bisexual)		0.063	0.283	0.220	0.198	−0.140	0.722
Covariances
Dating app use frequency	Gay community connection		0.096	0.136	0.074	0.066	−0.008	0.283
	Psychological distress wave 4		0.125	0.348	0.145	0.017	0.071	0.638
	Age wave 4		0.128	0.423	0.155	0.006	0.115	0.723
Gay community connection	Sexual racism		−0.019	−0.009	0.025	0.731	−0.057	0.041
	Psychological distress wave 4		−0.098	−0.142	0.079	0.071	−0.302	0.008
	Age wave 4		0.113	0.194	0.094	0.038	0.018	0.387
Sexual racism	Psychological distress wave 4		0.119	0.105	0.047	0.025	0.013	0.194
	Age wave 4		0.075	0.078	0.053	0.140	−0.026	0.181
Psychological distress	Psychological distress wave 4		0.468	1.419	0.186	0.000	1.074	1.801
Indirect and Total Effects at mean levels of Gay community connection (moderator)
Indirect effect		a*b	0.035	0.040	0.016	0.016	0.014	0.080
Total effect		c = c’+(a*b1)	0.146	0.166	0.059	0.005	0.051	0.284
Conditional Indirect and Total effects below and above 1SD of Gay community connection (moderator)
Indirect effects
Low Gay community connection (-1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*−0.865)	0.053	0.061	0.024	0.010	0.024	0.119
High Gay community connection (+1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*−0.865)	0.017	0.018	0.018	0.332	−0.014	0.060
Total effects
Low Gay community connection (-1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*−0.865)	0.188	0.062	0.003	0.066	0.312	0.188
High Gay community connection (+1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*+0.865)	0.144	0.059	0.015	0.027	0.261	0.144

Note. β = standardized beta coefficient; est = estimate of unstandardized coefficient; se = standard error; LCI = lower bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval; UCI = upper bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval. Significant CIs are presented in bold font.

In alignment with the results of Model A, the total effect (c) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress was significant (b = .166, 95%BCa CIs = [.051, .284]) in Model B. As illustrated in Figure 1b, Higher dating app use frequency was associated with more sexual racism (a path) (b=.070, 95%BCa CIs [.037, .101], and more experiences of sexual racism were positively associated with heightened psychological distress (b₁ path) (b = .567, 95%BCa CIs = [.207, .934]). Gay community connection (b₂ path) was inversely associated with psychological distress (b = −.294, 95%BCa CIs = [−.513, −.059]), but gay community connection did not moderate the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress (b = −.360, 95%BCa CIs = [−.740, .029]).

The indirect effect (a*b) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress through sexual racism was significant (b = .040, 95%BCa CIs = [.014, .080], while the direct effect (c’) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress remained significant (b = .126, 95%BCa CIs = [.008, .247]). This indirect effect was moderated by gay community connection a(b₁ + b_{3 *} ±1SD) and was strongest at low (−1SD) gay community connection (b = .061, 95%BCa CIs = [.024, .119]) and non-significant at high (+1SD) gay community connection (b = .018, 95%BCa CIs = [−.014, .060]). This moderated mediation model showed a good fit to the data (χ² = 26.4, df = 16, p > .05; CFI = .954; RMSEA = .039, 90% CI = [.003, .065]; SRMR = .034), accounting for 9.5% of the variability in sexual racism and 7.7% in the variability of psychological distress.

Model C. Dating App Use, Sexual Racism, and Racial/Ethnic Community Connection (Table 4)

Table 4.

Moderated Mediation Model C: Dating App Use (Wave 4) → Sexual Racism (Wave 5) → Psychological Distress Symptoms (Wave 6) by Racial/Ethnic Community Connection (Wave 5)

Outcome	Predictor	Label	β	est	se	p value	LCI	UCI
a path
Sexual racism	Dating app use frequency	a	0.208	0.069	0.017	0.000	0.036	0.102
	Black		0.197	0.265	0.071	0.000	0.128	0.409
	Afro-Latinx		0.157	0.214	0.070	0.002	0.080	0.355
b and c' paths
Psychological distress	Dating app use frequency	c'	0.089	0.101	0.061	0.096	−0.020	0.219
	Sexual racism	b 1	0.161	0.552	0.181	0.002	0.185	0.894
	Racial/Ethnic community connection	b 2	−0.129	−0.262	0.111	0.018	−0.477	−0.044
	Sexual racism X Racial/Ethnic community connection	b 3	−0.127	−0.473	0.219	0.031	−0.897	−0.034
	Non-gay identity (e.g., bisexual)		0.085	0.380	0.215	0.077	−0.042	0.804
Covariances
Dating app use frequency	Racial/Ethnic community connection		−0.001	−0.001	0.080	0.991	−0.159	0.154
	Psychological distress wave 4		0.124	0.346	0.144	0.016	0.068	0.633
	Age wave 4		0.129	0.426	0.155	0.006	0.126	0.735
Racial/Ethnic community connection	Sexual racism		0.043	0.020	0.024	0.398	−0.028	0.067
	Psychological distress wave 4		−0.187	−0.289	0.085	0.001	−0.465	−0.127
	Age wave 4		0.130	0.239	0.101	0.018	0.043	0.443
Sexual racism	Psychological distress wave 4		0.117	0.103	0.047	0.029	0.012	0.197
	Age wave 4		0.074	0.077	0.051	0.134	−0.021	0.181
Psychological distress	Psychological distress wave 4		0.457	1.384	0.180	0.000	1.061	1.773
Indirect and Total Effects at mean levels of Racial/Ethnic community connection (moderator)
Indirect effect		a*b	0.034	0.038	0.016	0.018	0.012	0.078
Total effect		c = c’+(a*b1)	0.122	0.139	0.059	0.018	0.023	0.254
Conditional Indirect and Total effects below and above 1SD of Racial/Ethnic community connection (moderator)
Indirect effects
Low Racial/Ethnic community connection (-1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*-0.917)	0.058	0.068	0.026	0.008	0.026	0.129
High Racial/Ethnic community connection (+1SD)		(a)*(b1+b3*+0.917)	0.009	0.008	0.020	0.681	−0.029	0.052
Total effects
Low Racial/Ethnic community connection (-1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*-0.917)	0.147	0.169	0.062	0.007	0.046	0.289
High Racial/Ethnic community connection (+1SD)		c'+(a)*(b1+b3*+0.917)	0.098	0.109	0.060	0.069	−0.012	0.227

Note. β = standardized beta coefficient; est = estimate of unstandardized coefficient; se = standard error; LCI = lower bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval; UCI = upper bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval. Significant CIs are presented in bold font.

Showing a similar pattern of results as in previous models, in Model C the total effect (c) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress was significant (b = .139, 95%BCa CIs = [.023, .254]). As illustrated in Figure 1c, greater dating app use frequency was associated with more sexual racism (a path) (b = .069, 95%BCa CIs [.036, .102]). In turn, more sexual racism was associated with heightened psychological distress (b path) (b = .552, 95%BCa CIs = [.185, .894]). Racial/ethnic community connection (b₂ path) was inversely associated with psychological distress (b = −.262, 95%BCa CIs = [−.477, −.044]). Moreover, racial/ethnic community connection moderated (b₃ path) the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress (b = −.473, 95%BCa CIs = [−.897, −.034]). As illustrated in Figure S1 (Supplemental Material), simple slopes analyses indicated that sexual racism was associated with higher psychological distress among participants who reported low (−1SD) connection with their racial or ethnic communities (b = .986, 95%BCa CIs [.460, 1.494]). Sexual racism was not associated with psychological distress among participants who reported high (+1SD) racial/ethnic community connection (b = .118, 95%BCa CIs [−0.418, .667]).

The indirect effect (a*b) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress through sexual racism was significant (b = .038, 95%BCa CIs = [.012, .078]), and the direct effect (c’) of dating app use frequency on psychological distress was no longer significant (b = .101, 95%BCa CIs = [−.020, .219]). Racial/ethnic community connection also moderated this mediation a(b₁ + b_{3 *} ±1SD) such that the indirect effect was strongest at low (−1SD) racial/ethnic community connection (b = .068, 95%BCa CIs = [.026, .129]) and no longer significant at high (+1SD) racial/ethnic community connection (b = .008, 95%BCa CIs = [−.029, .052]). This model showed adequate fit to the data (χ² = 31.38, df = 16, p > .05; CFI = .936; RMSEA = .048, 90% CI = [.022, .072]; SRMR = .036), accounting for 9.1% of and 8.3% in the variability of sexual racism and psychological distress, respectively.

Discussion

Research on the mental health effects of dating app use is mixed and limited among gay and bisexual men of color (Holtzhausen et al., 2020; Obarska et al., 2020; Zervoulis et al., 2019), despite the popularity of dating apps within this population (Badal et al., 2018; Barrada & Castro, 2020). In addition, a dearth of knowledge surrounds the unique ways in which gay and bisexual men of color can resist stigma-driven pressures perpetuated on dating apps to protect their mental health (Nguyễn & Han, 2024; Wade & Pear, 2022a). To fill these gaps, this study adopted a longitudinal, intersectional, and strengths-based approach to examine associations between dating app use and psychological distress over time, with mediation through sexual racism, and indicators of social support (i.e., general social support and identity-specific community connections) as buffers among Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men.

Consistent with minority stress theory (Brooks, 1981; Meyer, 2003), sexual objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997), and prior research examining the contexts and effects of sexual racism among gay and bisexual men of color (Chiu, 2023; Han & Choi, 2018; Hidalgo et al., 2020; Shepherd, Maki, et al., 2023), and as anticipated in our first hypothesis, baseline dating app use was positively associated with 6-month sexual racism, and sexual racism was positively associated with elevations in psychological distress at one-year follow-up. Furthermore, the indirect—but not the direct—effect of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism was significant, possibly due to the compounding effects of minority stress (e.g., stress related to racially/ethnically-motivated romantic or sexual rejection) and self-objectification (e.g., internalizing experiences of racial/ethnic fetishization). Therefore, it may not be that dating app use itself drives worse mental health among Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men but rather their experiences of racist exclusion and sexual objectification. This finding complements recent evidence that greater use of gay dating apps is associated with a lower sense of community, higher levels of loneliness, and lower levels of life satisfaction (Zervoulis et al., 2019), as well as worse mental health (Robinson, 2017), providing some theoretical support for these seemingly counterintuitive associations.

As expected in our second hypothesis, high general social support (e.g., from family and friends), gay community connection, and racial/ethnic community connection all diminished the indirect effects of dating app use on psychological distress via sexual racism. This finding can be explained by the social support buffering hypothesis (Cohen & Willis, 1985), which asserts that the provision of social support reduces stress (including minority stress; Li et al., 2023; Trujillo et al., 2017) and increases mental health through a variety of ways (e.g., helping people perceive stressors as more manageable, limiting the release of cortisol and other stress hormones, weakening the link between stress and negative physical health outcomes. This finding also aligns well with the social safety perspective of the health effects of stigma, which states that people’s socially-relevant perceptions or schemas of themselves (e.g., “I can get through difficult social situations”), the world (e.g., “People are supportive”), and their future (e.g., “Someone will always be there for me”) are more positive and psychologically healthier (e.g., less fearful and hypervigilant of stigma-related cues) with greater access to consistent evidence of connection, belonging, inclusion, recognition, and protection across a variety of social domains (e.g., family, friends, work/school, identity groups; Diamond & Alley, 2022; Slavich et al., 2023). Furthermore, this finding supports and extends previous research documenting psychological benefits of general social support (Fingerhut, 2018; Masini et al., 2008) and identity-specific community connection (Chai, 2024; Salfas et al., 2019; Soulliard et al., 2022; Skakoon-Sparling et al., 2022) among gay and bisexual men, most of which was based on mostly White samples with little attention to intersectionality. Due to intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., heterosexism, racism) that infiltrate communities and self-perceptions, Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men may have less access to general and community-specific forms of social support (Dawes et al., 2024) and, as a result, may benefit even more than their White peers when they do have it. In fact, a recent study found that the association between gay community connection and positive mental health outcomes (i.e., fewer symptoms of psychological distress, depression, and anxiety) was significantly stronger among gay men of color relative to White gay men (Petruzzella et al., 2019).

Mirroring prior research showing that Black gay and bisexual men with high ethnic identity commitment were less likely to experience depressive symptoms despite objectification by White men (Wade & Pear, 2022a), in the current study racial/ethnic community connection moderated the effect of sexual racism on psychological distress via sexual racism. However, contrary to our third hypothesis, general social support and gay community connection were not significant moderators of this effect. Given the previously documented negative association between online sexual racism and sexual orientation outness to family (Ma et al., 2024), it is possible that Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men in our sample who experienced more sexual racism lacked adequate social support from their families. There may also be differences in the protective potential of gay community and racial/ethnic community connection when it comes to sexual racism and mental health. Rooted in a racial hierarchy, sexual racism objectifies, sexualizes, and rejects the desirability of Black and Brown bodies in a White dominant society, including within gay and bisexual men’s communities (Bhambhani et al., 2019; Callander et al., 2015). Therefore, the protective potential of community connection may not be entirely equivalent for gay community relative to racial/ethnic community connection—depending on how participants or researchers define this community. That is, the inclusion of White men in the gay community may qualitatively change what it means to experience strong community connection to a gay community for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men due the racial prejudices that White men are socialized to maintain (Pachankis et al., 2020). Ambient racism within gay communities, when internalized, can also impact dating attitudes and behaviors among sexual minoritized men of color which can serve as barriers to building community with other sexual minoritized people of color, as evidenced by recent research showing that queer Asian men with more internalized racism are more likely to favor White men over men of their same race and other races, whereas those with higher empowerment and resistance against racism are more likely to hold no racialized dating preferences (Le & Kler, 2022).

The current findings add understanding and nuance to the current literature on the mental health-related effects of dating app use among gay and bisexual men (Robinson, 2017; Zervoulis et al., 2019). These findings contextualize research examining “intraminority stress,” which refers broadly to the unique status-based, competitive pressures that influence interactions between men who rely on other men to satisfy social and sexual needs (e.g., gay and bisexual men)—needs that would be easier to fulfill in a society free of heterosexism and other forms of identity-based stigma (Pachankis et al., 2020; Shepherd, Maki, et al., 2023). These pressures involve a perceived community focus on sex, status, competition, and exclusion of diversity (including racial/ethnic diversity), all of which may increase gay and bisexual men’s susceptibility to psychological distress (Mahon et al., 2021; Pachankis et al., 2020). Whether within or outside of dating apps, sexual racism contributes to the development and maintenance of these pressures and may pose a threat to mental health, especially in the absence of supportive social connections.

Limitations

To reduce the chance of a bidirectional or reverse causal pathway, we controlled for baseline levels of psychological distress; however, this should not be mistaken for a true causal pathway. The results are not generalizable to populations with different identities or to other geographic locations. Although there are dimensions of sexuality and race inherent in sexual racism, the framing and measurement of sexual racism in the current study do not consider the unique, intersectional ways that sexual racism may vary for specific groups of gay and bisexual men of color (e.g., stereotyping of Black gay men as hypersexual and dominant, stereotyping of Latinx gay men as macho and masculine, or stereotyping of Asian gay men as feminine or submissive; Calabrese et al., 2018; Young & Pederson, 2024). In addition, there are other factors that could potentially help elucidate the direct and indirect associations between dating app use, sexual racism, and psychological distress over time (e.g., dating app motivations, attachment style, internalized racism, identity conflict, sexual identity outness; Blake et al., 2022; Castro & Barrada, 2020; Le & Kler, 2022; He et al., 2024; Ma et al., 2024; Shepherd et al., 2025).

Due to sparseness of data across some dating apps, we did not test which apps were more strongly associated with sexual racism (Wade & Pear, 2022b). Available data do not clarify whether experiences of sexual racism occurred from men met on dating apps or elsewhere. Although the measure of sexual racism used in this study is broad enough to include experiences of sexual racism on dating apps (e.g., being made to feel like an object because of race/ethnicity), it does not precisely measure online experiences and was not validated for this context explicitly (Diaz et al., 2001). As such, it is possible that the association found between dating app use and sexual racism is a conservative estimate. On the topic of measurement limitations, single-item measures were used to assess participants’ levels of gay and racial/ethnic community connection; although single-item measures are commonly used and often necessary in psychological research, this limits our ability to fully and reliably capture the breadth and depth of the constructs in question, especially if they are multi-faceted (e.g., level of identification and involvement within a given community; Allen et al., 2022; Salfas et al., 2024). Specifying where, from whom, and under what conditions sexual racism occurs can further clarify how sexual racism is experienced on dating apps and how these context-specific experiences of sexual racism could be uniquely associated with psychological distress.

Finally, as described in many other quantitative approaches to modeling intersectionality (Bauer 2014; Bowleg, 2008), presenting independent protective effects of gay and racial/ethnic community connection suggests analytically independent protective community effects; however, there may be a natural overlap between the constructs of general social support and identity-specific community connection that should be acknowledged as a limitation of this study. Given their doubly marginalized status, this may be especially true for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men (Kler et al., 2023; Shepherd et al., 2025), whose most supportive connections may share their sexual and racial/ethnic identities. Indeed, connection to queer communities of color may provide liberatory community belonging, healing, and resilience by collectively centering and celebrating people of color’s lives and bodies (Mosley et al. 2021; Parmenter et al., 2024). Individual variability in definitions of who constitutes a participant’s gay or racial/ethnic community should also be considered. Future research is needed to examine and understand the ways different sources of social support and community connection, including intersectional sources, are protective factors that may be multiplicative, additive, or inuring (as has been done with intersectional stigma research; e.g., Mallory & Russell, 2021).

Implications and Future Directions

Findings from the current study have critical implications for research, clinical practice, and public health. Although gay and bisexual men are a non-monolithic group where systems of power and exclusion persist, researchers usually approach gay and bisexual men as a homogenous group. More investigation using an intersectionality approach that concomitantly considers multiple aspects of gay and bisexual men’s identity and social systems in the context of online dating is needed to create a comprehensive understanding of potential social and psychological benefits and risks of dating app use within this diverse population (Shepherd et al., 2024). In terms of clinical practice and other public health initiatives, our findings highlight the need for multi-level interventions to address intersecting sources and harms of stigma (Dellers et al., 2024; Jackson et al., 2022; Layland et al., 2020). Mental health clinicians, policymakers, community advocates, and other agents of change must be aware that Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men who use dating apps may encounter sexual racism—presenting a challenging paradox that as clients seek out affirming sexual and romantic experiences, they may also encounter racist stigma in addition to heterosexist stigma, both of which may work in tandem to further impact their mental health (Mallory & Russell, 2021). General social support and identity-specific community connection together with other potential protective factors (e.g., stigma resistance strategies, pride in intersectional identities; Nguyễn & Han, 2024; Parmenter et al., 2024; Quinn et al., 2022; Yen et al., 2024) could be targeted by adapting existing or designing new affirming and empowering mental health interventions for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men. Based on the particularly strong protective effect of racial/ethnic community connection in the current study, for this population, it may be especially important to design interventions that include partnership with family or community members who share racial/ethnic identities with participants. This approach reflects evidence that familial support (Dawes et al., 2024), identity-specific social support (e.g., Black women; Elopre et al., 2021), and racial or ethnic identity strength (Kalinowski et al., 2020; Wade & Pear, 2022a) may be critical stigma coping resources for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men.

Conclusion

Despite dating apps’ potential to be a safe space for gay and bisexual men to connect, Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men face sexual racism on these platforms. These sexual racism experiences comprise a unique, intersectional pathway to heightened psychological distress. In addition, this study highlighted several potential mechanisms of relational resilience (Ungar et al., 2020), finding that different forms of social support and community connection—especially racial/ethnic community connection—weaken the pathway from dating app use to psychological distress via sexual racism over time. Overall, researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and other agents of change geared towards reducing identity-based health disparities should work to reduce not only heterosexism but also racism and other stigmatizing social structures across a variety of social contexts, including dating apps, to better support the mental health of Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men.

Public Significance Statement.

This study shows that it may not be that dating app use itself drives worse mental health for Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, but rather experiences of racist exclusion, objectification, and sexualization. Results also suggest that greater gay community and racial/ethnic community connection and more social support from family and friends diminish the psychological impact of these experiences. These results underscore the need for multi-level interventions focused on reducing racial/ethnic prejudice, building community connection and support, and recognizing intersectionality in diverse gay and bisexual men’s communities to combat persistent mental health inequities affecting this population.