The effect of social media use on women's appearance anxiety

Abstract

With the marketing and dissemination of aberrant aesthetics such as "white, young and thin", "A4 waist" and "BM style" on social media, women's appearance anxiety has become an increasingly common phenomenon. This study takes the social media APP "Xiaohongshu" as an example to explore the relationship between social media use and female appearance anxiety, as well as the role of self-objectification, internalization of ideal beauty and comparison of appearance in the mechanism, using the questionnaire survey method and structural equation modeling to analyze the questionnaire data of 207 female Xiaohongshu users. The empirical results showed that (1) social media use has a positive effect on female appearance anxiety; (2) social media use affects female appearance anxiety through the chain mediation of ideal beauty internalization and appearance comparison; and (3) the mediating role of self-objectification between social media use and female appearance anxiety is not significant. As a result, this study further refines the mechanism of social media use on female appearance anxiety and suggests that correct aesthetic standards should be established to respect appearance diversity and resist trafficking in appearance anxiety.