Motives for intentional sunlight exposure among young adult sexual minority men: appearance, relaxation and socialization in a cohort study

Skin cancer risk behaviors in sexual minority men: A mixed methods approach.

“…Among the few published studies in this area, several salient themes have emerged regarding motivations to tan or not to tan. For example, sexual minority men who are frequent outdoor tanners reported more positive attitudes about tanning to feel more attractive, to relax, and to increase social activity, compared to sexual minority men who only occasionally outdoor tan (Robinson et al, 2021). Similarly, among sexual minority men who have tanned indoors in the previous 12 months, over half stated tanning makes them feel more attractive, an additional ∼20% reported appearing slimmer when tan, and over half identified mood improvement/stress reduction benefits to tanning (Morrison et al, 2019).…”

“…Thus, theoretically, minority stressors may be associated with increased tanning behaviors through positive expectancies that tanning is an effective way to regulate affect—and indeed, experimental designs have demonstrated increased relaxation responses to UV versus non-UV exposure (Feldman et al, 2004). Second, while existing models have tested motivators and barriers to indoor tanning (Blashill et al, 2018) and other studies have explored correlates of indoor (Morrison et al, 2019) and outdoor tanning (Robinson et al, 2021) there are no known studies which have explored both indoor and outdoor tanning behaviors separately among sexual minority men. This is an important gap, as pathways to indoor versus outdoor tanning may vary in statistical significance and/or magnitude of association, which may lead to suggestions for varied avenues for prevention depending on whether the outcome is reduction in indoor tanning, outdoor tanning, or UV exposure more broadly.…”