Impact of Covid-19 Lockdown Towards Social Media Usage and Body Image among Adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang.

Abstract

Introduction: Social media use among children and adolescents has increased significantly especially when COVID-19 struck. Social media have appearance-related content that include images of which encourage appearance comparisons. Research suggests that media use among adolescents can affect their body image. Objective: This study aimed to identify the sociodemographic background among adolescents, the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on social media usage and body image and the association between social media usage and body image among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 347 adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang from April to June 2022 through convenience sampling method. Data were collected by using Google Forms survey and printed questionnaire that was available in bilingual. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation test was used for the data analysis using SPSS version 27. Results: About 37.8% of adolescents stated that they spent more than four hours a day before lockdown and it increases to 48.1% for current use. This indicate that a slight increase in social media usage before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. There is no significant association between the social media usage and the body image evaluation among adolescents. Conclusion: The adolescents seem to have moderate usage of social media and low body esteem.