Abstract
With the global COVID-19 pandemic, governments from many countries in the world implemented various restrictions to prevent the SARS-Cov-2 virus's spread, including social distancing measures, quarantine, in-home lockdown, and the closure of services and public spaces. This led to an in-creased use of social media platforms to make people feel more connected, but also to maintain physical activity while self-isolating. Concerns about physical appearance and the desire to keep or reach a muscular and toned ideal body, might have further reinforced the engagement in fitness-related social media activities, like sharing progresses in training achievements or following more fitness contents on popular profiles. To better understand the underlying relation among these factors, the present study investigates 729 responses to the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI), the Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI), the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) and their association to social media usage and compares the results cross-culturally in five countries (Spain, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Japan, and Hungary). Findings highlight significant differences between males and females, espe-cially in regard to the time spent online (U = 477.5, p = 0.036). Greater levels of appearance anxiety were associated with the exposure to fitness-related contents on social media. These results strongly confirm the previously highlighted association between fitspiration media and body image anxiety predominantly in females. Clinical implications and future considerations in terms of prevention and treatment in a situation of global emergency are also discussed.
Highlights
With the spread of the coronavirus disease associated to the SARS-Cov-2 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic situation in March 2020 due to COVID-19’s severe acute respiratory syndrome
The questions were created based on the key themes emerged by a recent review on fitspiration and the latest trends in social media, such as the role played by influencers [5]
Several differences emerged from the comparison, started from the percentage of participants belonging to each group in scoring lower values for the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) (X2 = 8.64, p = 0.003), and for the Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI) (X2 = 17.09, p
Summary
With the spread of the coronavirus disease associated to the SARS-Cov-2 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic situation in March 2020 due to COVID-19’s severe acute respiratory syndrome. Journal Pre-proof mask while out of one’s own house, temperature taking and mandatory lockdown These stringent preventive measures have radically changed people’s social behavior, leading to increased interactions mediated by social media sites, which became the main medium for communication during the pandemic. Kantar’s global study on media habits in April 2020 revealed a 61% and a 70% increase in social media engagement and web browsing respectively from the 14th to the 23rd of March 2020 (Attitudes Media Habits and Expectations) This included a peak in messaging-platform usage amongst ages 18 to 34, with a 40% increase in the use of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Fitspiration contents support the ideal of a fit body, gained through the combination of physical exercise and a balanced diet These messages are often accompanied by pictures showing the pre- and post-fitness changes in the body. One of the major risks associated to the prolonged and continuous exposure to fitspiration posts is the priming of psychological and physiological mechanisms that might lead one to develop an excessive physical workout routine [5] for reasons mainly
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