Author(s)

Yitong Zhu

AP Department, Guangdong Country Garden School, Foshan, China.

This research is aiming to fill the data gap between Eastern and male data on adolescents’ body image and examined the relationship between social media usage and body image concerns among 132 middle school students aged 14 and 19 in the Guangzhou-Foshan area, China, using partial subscales of the Negative Physical Self Scale (NNPS) and quantified media exposure questionnaire to conduct Pearson coefficient analysis. Modern social media is not only a tool for leisure but also a key marker of popular trends. Previous research has highlighted the main difference between traditional media and social media, with the latter putting more emphasis on comparison combined with the “high-visual” nature. Researchers have identified this as one of the major factors contributing to negative feelings about body image, and existing studies have proved that upward social comparison among people on social media has aroused widespread body image concern. Given that women tend to express greater concerns about body image than men do, many studies on body image often focus exclusively on female samples, with existing data mostly concentrated in western countries. The results revealed a negative correlation between body image satisfaction and the degree of media exposure in adolescents. These findings suggest that exposure to the ideal body image in the social media environment make a detrimental effect on adolescents expressing dissatisfaction with their adolescents’ body image and pursuing a more perfect body. Dissatisfaction will increase with heavier involvement of specific content views and browsing time. Future research could focus on whether interventions aimed at enhancing media literacy could effectively mitigate negative body image among adolescents.

Body Image, Social Media, Social Comparison Theory

Zhu, Y. (2023) The Influence of Social Media on Adolescent Body Image Ideals: A Study of Middle School Students in Guangzhou-Foshan, China. Advances in Applied Sociology, 13, 604-621. doi: 10.4236/aasoci.2023.138038.