Effects of Social Media and Smartphone Use on Body Esteem in Female Adolescents: Testing a Cognitive and Affective Model.

Hwajin Yang,Joy Jiaqi Wang,Sujin Yang,Germaine Y Q Tng

doi:10.3390/children7090148

Hwajin Yang, Joy Jiaqi Wang + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/children7090148

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Abstract

We examined the predictive relations of social media and smartphone use to body esteem in female adolescents and the mechanism that underlies these relations. As a result of frequent social media and smartphone use, adolescents are continually exposed to appearance-related media content. This likely reinforces a thin ideal and fosters appearance-based comparison and increases fear of external evaluation. Hence, we investigated a cognitive-affective framework in which the associations of social media and smartphone use with body esteem are serially mediated by cognitive internalization of an ideal body image, appearance comparisons, and social appearance anxiety. By testing female adolescents (N = 100) aged 13 to 18, we found that excessive social media use leads to unhealthy body esteem via intensified cognitive internalization, which aggravates appearance comparisons and anxiety regarding negative appearance evaluation. Further, we found that screen time for specific smartphone activities also harmed body esteem, independent of social media use. However, overall smartphone screen time did not affect body esteem when social media use was taken into consideration. Our findings underscore the multifactor mechanism that elucidates the negative impacts of social media and smartphone activities on body esteem in female adolescents, who are developmentally susceptible to poor body esteem.

Highlights

According to a recent survey [1], 95% of adolescents between 13 and 17 in the U.S own or have access to a smartphone, which serves as a platform for media consumption
We examined the three mediational relations of screen time for social media, overall smartphone use, and specific smartphone activities to body esteem in female adolescents by focusing on three sequential mediators of cognitive internalization of thin ideals, engagement in social comparison, and social appearance anxiety
We controlled for key covariates of age, income, body mass index (BMI), and internal locus of control over one’s body, all of which have been suggested as factors that influence body esteem [29,58,60,61]

Summary

Introduction

According to a recent survey [1], 95% of adolescents between 13 and 17 in the U.S own or have access to a smartphone, which serves as a platform for media consumption. Highly visual social networking platforms, which promote the exchange of user-generated, aesthetically enhanced photos and videos [2], have garnered immense popularity among adolescents in the last decade. Given that highly visual social media and smartphones permeate adolescents’ daily lives, previous studies have found adverse effects of adolescents’ smartphone and media consumption on various psychological outcomes, such as lower self-esteem [6], sleep disturbances, and depressive symptoms [7]. Given that female adolescents are susceptible to pressure from unrealistic standards of beauty portrayed by the media (e.g., appearance-highlighting content such as images of thin models) [8], there has been a surge of interest in the associations of social media and smartphones

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