An exploratory Internet study: the relationship between men's self-reported physical attributes, body image, self-esteem, and Internet dating

The majority of research over the past several decades in the area of body image, evaluations of physical appearances, and implications of eating disorders, has largely focused on women. In the late 80s, some researchers challenged the conceptualisation of body image dissatisfaction as a uni-gender problem and pioneered a series of studies, which found that men have succumbed to societal pressures of the idealised body and experience greater prevalence of body concerns and resultant negative implications than previously reported. While the focus of body image studies have included male participants since then, many of them were flawed by using measures that were originally intended to measure body concerns among women. The current study aimed to examine the relationships between men's self-reported physical attributes of men including; weight, body image, penis size and satisfaction, general psychological health, and Internet dating behaviours using measures that have been specifically developed to measure male concerns.