Social Media Use and Its Impact on Body Image: The Effects of Body Comparison Tendency, Motivation for Social Media Use, and Social Media Platform on Body Esteem in Young Women Public Deposited
- 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
- DOI
- Resource type
- 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
- Parents:
This work has no parents.
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Puglia_unc_0153M_16802.pdf | 2019-04-10 | Public |
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