Last Modified

• March 20, 2019

Creator

• Puglia, Deanna
  • Affiliation: Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Mass Communication Graduate Program

Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social media use on body esteem in young women. Through a self-report survey of college women (n=339), it was found that body comparison tendency was negatively correlated with body esteem and positively correlated with the motivation to use social media for body comparisons (both p<.01). This study also provided an exploratory investigation (n=58) of the impact that different social media platforms have on body satisfaction. Of the platforms examined, Facebook showed the largest negative correlation with body satisfaction (r=-.204). Participants who engaged in higher levels of Facebook use also displayed significantly lower body satisfaction than those with lower Facebook use (p<.05). This study suggests that social media is a new avenue for individuals to engage in maladaptive body comparison processes, creating a need for health communication and behavior change interventions that address this issue, especially among vulnerable populations.

Date of publication

• May 2017

Keyword

• body satisfaction
• body comparison
• Public health
• body dissatisfaction
• Psychology
• Communication
• body esteem
• social media

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.17615/f0zw-xf26

Resource type

• Masters Thesis

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Advisor

• Widman, Laura
• Noar, Seth
• Lazard, Allison

Degree

• Master of Arts

Degree granting institution

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School

Graduation year

• 2017

Language

• English

Parents:

This work has no parents.

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