La Trobe

A biopsychosocial model of social media use and body image concerns, disordered eating, and muscle-building behaviors among adolescent girls and boys

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posted on 2025-01-29, 06:15 authored by Rachel Rodgers, Amy Slater, Chloe Gordon, Sian McLeanSian McLean, Hannah JarmanHannah Jarman, Susan PaxtonSusan Paxton
Social media use is associated with body image concerns, disordered eating and body change behaviors in adolescents. This study aimed to examine these relationships within a biopsychosocial framework and test an integrated model. A sample of 681 adolescents (49% female), mean age = 12.76 years (SD = 0.74), completed a questionnaire assessing social media use, depression, self-esteem, body mass index, social media and muscular ideal internalization, appearance comparison, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and muscle-building behaviors. Path analysis was used to test the hypothetical model, which after modification revealed good fit to the data, although gender differences emerged. The findings suggest that biopsychosocial frameworks are useful for conceptualizing relationships between social media use and body image, eating, and muscle building outcomes.

Funding

Whether social media literacy mitigates effects of social media in adolescents

Australian Research Council

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History

Publication Date

2020-02-01

Journal

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Volume

49

Issue

2

Pagination

11p. (p. 399-409)

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

0047-2891

Rights Statement

© The Authors 2020. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use (https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/policies/accepted-manuscript-terms) but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01190-0