IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i21p4177-d281434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Media, Thin-Ideal, Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating Attitudes: An Exploratory Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Pilar Aparicio-Martinez

    (Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Menéndez Pidal, 1470 Córdoba, Spain
    Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
    Grupo Investigación epidemiológica en Atención primaria (GC-12) del Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC), Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, 14071 Córdoba, Spain)

  • Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno

    (Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Córdoba, ceiA3, Campus de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain)

  • María Pilar Martinez-Jimenez

    (Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Córdoba, ceiA3, Campus de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain)

  • María Dolores Redel-Macías

    (Departamento Ingeniería Rural, Ed Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario, ceiA3, 1470 Cordoba, Spain)

  • Claudia Pagliari

    (eHealth Research Group, Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK)

  • Manuel Vaquero-Abellan

    (Grupo Investigación epidemiológica en Atención primaria (GC-12) del Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC), Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, 14071 Córdoba, Spain)

Abstract

Disordered eating attitudes are rapidly increasing, especially among young women in their twenties. These disordered behaviours result from the interaction of several factors, including beauty ideals. A significant factor is social media, by which the unrealistic beauty ideals are popularized and may lead to these behaviours. The objectives of this study were, first, to determine the relationship between disordered eating behaviours among female university students and sociocultural factors, such as the use of social network sites, beauty ideals, body satisfaction, body image and the body image desired to achieve and, second, to determine whether there is a sensitive relationship between disordered eating attitudes, addiction to social networks, and testosterone levels as a biological factor. The data ( N = 168) was obtained using validated surveys (EAT-26, BSQ, CIPE-a, SNSA) and indirect measures of prenatal testosterone. The data was analysed using chi-square, Student’s t-test, correlation tests and logistic regression tests. The results showed that disordered eating attitudes were linked to self-esteem ( p < 0.001), body image ( p < 0.001), body desired to achieve ( p < 0.001), the use of social media ( p < 0.001) and prenatal testosterone ( p < 0.01). The findings presented in this study suggest a relationship between body image, body concerns, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating attitudes among college women.

Suggested Citation

  • Pilar Aparicio-Martinez & Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno & María Pilar Martinez-Jimenez & María Dolores Redel-Macías & Claudia Pagliari & Manuel Vaquero-Abellan, 2019. "Social Media, Thin-Ideal, Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating Attitudes: An Exploratory Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-16, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4177-:d:281434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4177/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4177/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sari Castrén & Terhi Mustonen & Krista Hylkilä & Niko Männikkö & Maria Kääriäinen & Kirsimarja Raitasalo, 2022. "Risk Factors for Excessive Social Media Use Differ from Those of Gambling and Gaming in Finnish Youth," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Jane Lu Hsu & Rainbow Tsai-Ling Hung & Melchior Antoine, 2021. "Investigating the Linkages between BMI, Body Image, and SATAQ among Young Asian Females," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-11, July.
    3. Lavinia Maria Pop & Magdalena Iorga & Raluca Iurcov, 2022. "Body-Esteem, Self-Esteem and Loneliness among Social Media Young Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-14, April.
    4. An T. Vuong & Hannah K. Jarman & Jo R. Doley & Siân A. McLean, 2021. "Social Media Use and Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Thin- and Muscular-Ideal Internalisation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Przemysław Seweryn Kasiak & Natalia Adamczyk & Alicja Monika Jodczyk & Aleksandra Kaproń & Anna Lisowska & Artur Mamcarz & Daniel Śliż, 2022. "COVID-19 Pandemic Consequences among Individuals with Eating Disorders on a Clinical Sample in Poland—A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    6. Mario J. Valladares-Garrido & Darwin A. León-Figueroa & Cinthia Karina Picón-Reátegui & Abigaíl García-Vicente & Danai Valladares-Garrido & Virgilio E. Failoc-Rojas & César Johan Pereira-Victorio, 2023. "Prevalence and Factors Associated with Eating Disorders in Military First Line of Defense against COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study during the Second Epidemic Wave in Peru," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Hannah C. Glaser & Sikke R. Jansma & Hanneke Scholten, 2024. "A diary study investigating the differential impacts of Instagram content on youths’ body image," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4177-:d:281434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.