Facebook is Linked to Body Dissatisfaction: Comparing Users and Non-Users

Facebook is Linked to Body Dissatisfaction: Comparing Users and Non-Users Growing media consumption and emerging forms of social media such as Facebook allow for unprecedented appearance-based social comparison with peers, family, and the wider media. We hypothesise that, for adult men and women, body dissatisfaction is related to peer-based media just as it is to traditional media forms. We expect that middle-aged women in particular are a vulnerable population, due to increasing pressure to conform to youthful beauty standards. In a national sample of New Zealand adults collected in 2012 (N = 11,017), we test the cross-sectional links between being a Facebook user and body satisfaction for men and women across age cohorts. Using a Bayesian regression model testing curvilinear effects of age, we show that having and using a Facebook profile is associated with poorer body satisfaction for both men and women, and across all ages. For women who use Facebook, a U-shaped curvilinear relationship was found between age and body satisfaction; thus the gap between non-users and users in body satisfaction was exacerbated among middle-aged women. A possible cohort effect also indicated that young women tend to be lower in body satisfaction overall. These findings add to the extant literature by suggesting that new media exposure may be associated with lower body satisfaction for some populations more than others, and emphasise the importance of examining body satisfaction in older populations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Sex Roles Springer Journals

Facebook is Linked to Body Dissatisfaction: Comparing Users and Non-Users

Download PDF
14 pages
Read Article

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/facebook-is-linked-to-body-dissatisfaction-comparing-users-and-non-1ijNvoshh0
Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Springer Science+Business Media New York
Subject
Psychology; Gender Studies; Sociology, general; Medicine/Public Health, general
ISSN
0360-0025
eISSN
1573-2762
DOI
10.1007/s11199-015-0517-6
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Growing media consumption and emerging forms of social media such as Facebook allow for unprecedented appearance-based social comparison with peers, family, and the wider media. We hypothesise that, for adult men and women, body dissatisfaction is related to peer-based media just as it is to traditional media forms. We expect that middle-aged women in particular are a vulnerable population, due to increasing pressure to conform to youthful beauty standards. In a national sample of New Zealand adults collected in 2012 (N = 11,017), we test the cross-sectional links between being a Facebook user and body satisfaction for men and women across age cohorts. Using a Bayesian regression model testing curvilinear effects of age, we show that having and using a Facebook profile is associated with poorer body satisfaction for both men and women, and across all ages. For women who use Facebook, a U-shaped curvilinear relationship was found between age and body satisfaction; thus the gap between non-users and users in body satisfaction was exacerbated among middle-aged women. A possible cohort effect also indicated that young women tend to be lower in body satisfaction overall. These findings add to the extant literature by suggesting that new media exposure may be associated with lower body satisfaction for some populations more than others, and emphasise the importance of examining body satisfaction in older populations.

Journal

Sex Roles – Springer Journals

Published: Aug 5, 2015

References

  • Youth’07: The health and wellbeing of secondary school students in New Zealand, initial findings
  • Women, weight and age: Social comparison to magazine images across the lifespan
    Bessenoff, GR; Priore, RE
  • Impacts of exposure to images of ideal bodies on male body dissatisfaction: A review
    Blond, A
  • How has body image changed? A cross-sectional investigation of college women and men from 1983 to 2001
    Cash, TF; Morrow, JA; Hrabosky, JI; Perry, AA
  • Cognitive responses to idealized media images of women: The relationship of social comparison and critical processing to body image disturbance in college women
    Engeln-Maddox, R
  • Negative comparisons about one’s appearance mediate the relationship between Facebook usage and body image concerns
    Fardouly, J; Vartanian, LR
  • Gender differences in body image are increasing
    Feingold, A; Mazzella, R
  • Negative social comparison on Facebook and depressive symptoms: Rumination as a mechanism
    Feinstein, BA; Hershenberg, R; Bhatia, V; Latack, JA; Meuwly, N; Davila, J
  • A theory of social comparison processes
    Festinger, L
  • The effects of exposure to slend and muscular images on male body dissatisfaction
    Galioto, R; Crowther, JH
  • Bayesian data analysis
    Gelman, A; Carlin, JB; Stern, HS; Rubin, DB
  • The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism
    Glick, P; Fiske, ST
  • The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies
    Grabe, S; Ward, LM; Hyde, JS
  • Social comparison 2.0: Examining the effects of online profiles on social-networking sites
    Haferkamp, N; Krämer, NC
  • Social body comparison and internalization: Mediators of social influences on men’s muscularity-oriented body dissatisfaction
    Karazsia, BT; Crowther, JH
  • In vivo social comparison to a thin-ideal peer promotes body dissatisfaction: A Randomized experiment
    Krones, PG; Stice, E; Batres, C; Orjada, K
  • The time has come: Bayesian methods for data analysis in the organizational sciences
    Kruschke, JK; Aguinis, H; Joo, H
  • Childhood obesity stigma: Association with television, videogame, and magazine exposure
    Latner, JD; Rosewall, JK; Simmonds, MB
  • How do people compare themselves with others on social network sites?: The case of Facebook
    Lee, SY
  • Who does what on Facebook? Age, sex, and relationship status as predictors of Facebook use
    McAndrew, FT; Jeong, HS
  • Body image dissatisfaction among males across the lifespan: A review of past literature
    McCabe, MP; Ricciardelli, LA
  • Body image and self-esteem across age and gender: A short-term longitudinal study
    Mellor, D; Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M; McCabe, MP; Ricciardelli, LA
  • Media consumption, body image and thin ideals in New Zealand men and women
    Miller, E; Halberstadt, J
  • Make new friends or keep the old: Gender and personality differences in social networking use
    Muscanell, NL; Guadagno, RE
  • Social comparison as a predictor of body dissatisfaction: A meta-analytic review
    Myers, TA; Crowther, JH
  • Social media effects on young women’s body image concerns: theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research
    Perloff, RM
  • Putting their best foot forward: Emotional disclosure on Facebook
    Qiu, L; Lin, H; Leung, AK; Tov, W
  • Do appearance focused cognitive distortions moderate the relationship between social comparisons to peers and media images and body image disturbance?
    Ridolfi, DR; Myers, TA; Crowther, JH; Ciesla, JA
  • Women and weight: A normative discontent
    Rodin, J; Silberstein, L; Striegel-Moore, R
  • Body dissatisfaction in women across the lifespan: Results of the UNC-SELF and gender and body image (GABI) studies
    Runfola, CD; Holle, AV; Trace, SE; Brownley, KA; Hofmeier, SM; Gagne, DA; Bulik, CM
  • Demographic and psychological predictors of panel attrition: Evidence from the New Zealand attitudes and values study
    Satherly, N; Milojev, P; Greaves, LM; Huang, Y; Osborne, D; Bulbulia, J; Sibley, CG
  • The tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbance: A replication with adolescent girls
    Shroff, H; Thompson, JK
  • On the nature of sexist ambivalence: Profiling ambivalent and univalent sexists
    Sibley, CG; Becker, JC
  • Media exposure, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating in middle-aged women: A test of the sociocultural model of disordered eating
    Slevec, J; Tiggemann, M
  • Sociocultural influences and muscle building in adolescent boys
    Smolak, L; Murnen, SK; Thompson, JK
  • Risk and maintenance factors for eating pathology: A meta-analytic review
    Stice, E
  • Women’s perceived body image: Relations with personal happiness
    Stokes, R; Frederick-Recascino, C
  • Comparing to perfection: How cultural norms for appearance affect social comparisons and self-image
    Strahan, EJ; Wilson, AE; Cressman, KE; Buote, VM
  • Exacting beauty: Theory, assessment, and treatment of body image disturbance
    Thompson, JK; Heinberg, LJ; Altabe, M; Tantleff-Dunn, S
  • Body image across the life span in adult women: The role of self-objectification
    Tiggemann, M; Lynch, JE
  • Body appreciation in adult women: Relationships with age and body satisfaction
    Tiggemann, M; McCourt, A
  • The internet and adolescent girls’ weight satisfaction and drive for thinness
    Tiggemann, M; Miller, J
  • NetGirls: The internet, Facebook, and body image concern in adolescent girls
    Tiggemann, M; Slater, A
  • NetTweens: The internet and body image concerns in preteenage girls
    Tiggemann, M; Slater, A
  • The Oxford handbook of the psychology of appearance
    Tiggemann, M; Slevec, J
  • Weight concern across the life-span: Relationship to self-esteem and feminist identity
    Tiggemann, M; Stevens, C
  • Refinement of the tripartite influence model for men: Dual body image pathways to body change behaviors
    Tylka, TL
  • Body dissatisfaction and body comparison with media images in males and females
    Berg, P; Paxton, SJ; Keery, H; Wall, M; Guo, J; Neumark-Sztainer, D
  • Meta-analytic moderators of experimental exposure to media portrayals of women on female appearance satisfaction: Social comparisons as automatic processes
    Want, SC

You’re reading a free preview. Subscribe to read the entire article.

Try 2 weeks free now

DeepDyve is your
personal research library

It’s your single place to instantly
discover and read the research
that matters to you.

Enjoy affordable access to
over 18 million articles from more than
15,000 peer-reviewed journals.

All for just $49/month

Explore the DeepDyve Library

or browse the journals available

Search

Query the DeepDyve database, plus search all of PubMed and Google Scholar seamlessly

Organize

Save any article or search result from DeepDyve, PubMed, and Google Scholar... all in one place.

Access

Get unlimited, online access to over 18 million full-text articles from more than 15,000 scientific journals.

Your journals are on DeepDyve

Read from thousands of the leading scholarly journals from SpringerNature, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford University Press and more.

All the latest content is available, no embargo periods.

See the journals in your area

DeepDyve

Freelancer

DeepDyve

Pro

Price

FREE

$49/month
$360/year

Save searches from
Google Scholar,
PubMed

Create folders to
organize your research

Export folders, citations

Read DeepDyve articles

Abstract access only

Unlimited access to over
18 million full-text articles

Print

20 pages / month

PDF Discount

20% off

Sign up
for free
Start 14 day
Free Trial