Body image and social media in college students

Author

Elaine M. Kozmiuk, Boise State UniversityFollow
Sawyer Ellis, Boise State UniversityFollow
Mary Pritchard, Boise State UniversityFollow
Heather Schoenherr (Mentor), College of Western IdahoFollow

Volume

30

Number

1

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2024

Abstract

The current study assessed the relationship between social media appearance-related preoccupation (SMARP), body shame, body surveillance, and social physique anxiety (SPA). Data were collected from 1,049 participants, and a correlational analysis and a hierarchal regression were conducted. Significant relationships were found between body shame, body surveillance, SMARP, and SPA, supporting our hypotheses. Our results confirmed the relationship between SPA and SMARP, adding evidence to a mixed debate about the relationships between SPA and social media use. The researchers found that SPA moderated the relationship between body shame and SMARP. We can conclude that appearance anxieties and appearance-based social media use are related. The results of this study indicate that media literacy and literacy on appearance anxieties should be expanded.

Keyword

social media appearance-related preoccupation; social physique anxiety; body shame; body surveillance

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Recommended Citation

Kozmiuk, Elaine M.; Ellis, Sawyer; Pritchard, Mary; and Schoenherr, Heather (Mentor) (2024) "Body image and social media in college students," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 30: No. 1, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol30/iss1/8