IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i7p2416-d340455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Social Support, Neuroticism, and Web Content Internalization on the Drive for Thinness among Women Visiting Health-Oriented Websites

Author

Listed:
  • Nikol Kvardova

    (Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic)

  • Hana Machackova

    (Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic)

  • David Smahel

    (Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic)

Abstract

One of the debates about media usage is the potential harmful effect that it has on body image and related eating disturbances because of its representations of the “ideal body”. This study focuses on the drive for thinness among the visitors of various health-oriented websites and online platforms because neither has yet been sufficiently studied in this context. Specifically, this study aims to bring more insight to the risk factors which can increase the drive for thinness in the users of these websites. We tested the presumption that web content internalization is a key factor in this process, and we considered the effects of selected individual factors, specifically the perceived online social support and neuroticism. We utilized survey data from 445 Czech women (aged 18–29, M = 23.5, SD = 3.1) who visited nutrition, weight loss, and exercise websites. The results showed a positive indirect link between both perceived online social support and neuroticism to the drive for thinness via web content internalization. The results are discussed with regard to the dual role of online support as both risk and protective factor. Moreover, we consider the practical implications for eating behavior and weight-related problems with regard to prevention and intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikol Kvardova & Hana Machackova & David Smahel, 2020. "The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Social Support, Neuroticism, and Web Content Internalization on the Drive for Thinness among Women Visiting Health-Oriented Websites," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2416-:d:340455
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2416/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2416/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chiu, Chao-Min & Huang, Hsin-Yi & Cheng, Hsiang-Lan & Sun, Pei-Chen, 2015. "Understanding online community citizenship behaviors through social support and social identity," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 504-519.
    2. Lang, Frieder R. & John, Dennis & Lüdtke, Oliver & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Gert G., 2011. "Short Assessment of the Big Five: Robust Across Survey Methods Except Telephone Interviewing," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 548-567.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Stellefson & Samantha R. Paige & Beth H. Chaney & J. Don Chaney, 2020. "Social Media and Health Promotion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-5, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabian Kosse & Thomas Deckers & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Armin Falk, 2020. "The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(2), pages 434-467.
    2. Beatrice Rammstedt & Frank M. Spinath & David Richter & Jürgen Schupp, 2013. "Personality Changes in Couples: Partnership Longevity and Personality Congruence in Couples," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 585, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Georges Steffgen & Philipp E. Sischka & Martha Fernandez de Henestrosa, 2020. "The Quality of Work Index and the Quality of Employment Index: A Multidimensional Approach of Job Quality and Its Links to Well-Being at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-31, October.
    4. Hille, Adrian & Schupp, Jürgen, 2015. "How Learning a Musical Instrument Affects the Development of Skills," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 44, pages 56-82.
    5. Gerards, Ruud & de Grip, Andries & Weustink, A., 2018. "Do new ways of working increase informal learning?," Research Memorandum 010, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    6. Marco Caliendo & Frank Fossen & Alexander Kritikos, 2014. "Personality characteristics and the decisions to become and stay self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 787-814, April.
    7. Marco Caliendo & Frank M Fossen & Alexander S Kritikos, 2022. "Personality characteristics and the decision to hire [Do the unemployed become successful entrepreneurs?]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 31(3), pages 736-761.
    8. Cabane, Charlotte & Hille, Adrian & Lechner, Michael, 2016. "Mozart or Pelé? The effects of adolescents' participation in music and sports," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 90-103.
    9. Hannes Kröger & Jürgen Schupp & Johann Behrens, 2014. "Unlocking further potential in the National Cohort study (NaKo) through comparability with the German Socio-Economic Panel," RatSWD Working Papers 237, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    10. Hashibul Hassan & Asad Islam & Abu Siddique & Liang Choon Wang, 2024. "Telementoring and Homeschooling During School Closures: a Randomised Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(662), pages 2418-2438.
    11. Simone Schneider & Jürgen Schupp, 2014. "Individual Differences in Social Comparison and its Consequences for Life Satisfaction: Introducing a Short Scale of the Iowa–Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 767-789, January.
    12. Kautz, Tim & Heckman, James J. & Diris, Ron & ter Weel, Bas & Borghans, Lex, 2014. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," IZA Discussion Papers 8696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Reher, Leonie & Runst, Petrik & Thomä, Jörg, 2024. "Personality and regional innovativeness: An empirical analysis of German patent data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).
    14. Clare Leaver & Owen Ozier & Pieter Serneels & Andrew Zeitlin, 2021. "Recruitment, Effort, and Retention Effects of Performance Contracts for Civil Servants: Experimental Evidence from Rwandan Primary Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2213-2246, July.
    15. Buehler, Dorothee & Sharma, Rasadhika & Stein, Wiebke, 2019. "Personality traits in Southeast Asia - Evidence from rural Thailand and Vietnam," TVSEP Working Papers wp-014, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    16. Brust Oliver A. & Häder Sabine & Häder Michael, 2016. "Is the Short Version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-S) Applicable for Use in Telephone Surveys?," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 32(3), pages 601-618, September.
    17. Donata Bessey, 2018. "Preferences, personality and health behaviors: results from an explorative economic experiment," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 437-456, December.
    18. Binder, Martin & Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Guardiola, Jorge, 2020. "Does it have to be a sacrifice? Different notions of the good life, pro-environmental behavior and their heterogeneous impact on well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    19. Luo, Nuan & Zhang, Mingli & Hu, Mu & Wang, Yu, 2016. "How community interactions contribute to harmonious community relationships and customers’ identification in online brand community," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 673-685.
    20. Dario Krpan & Jonathan E. Booth & Andreea Damien, 2023. "The positive–negative–competence (PNC) model of psychological responses to representations of robots," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(11), pages 1933-1954, November.

    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:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2416-:d:340455. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.