Social Media and Body Image Dissatisfaction among Pakistani Adolescents: A Psychological Study

Abstract

Social media is an inseparable part of every adolescent's day-to-day activities, impacting different spheres of psychological functioning, particularly body image. The increased use of social media presents adolescents with ideal body images which can foster body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem. However, this phenomenon has hardly been studied within Pakistan. The current study sought to determine the association between social media use and body image dissatisfaction among Pakistani adolescents as well as determine differences, if any, in these variables by gender. A cross-sectional approach was adopted for this study, and data were collected from three hundred adolescents (150 males and 150 females) from ten metropolitan areas of Pakistan through purposive sampling. The Social Media Engagement Questionnaire (SMEQ) was used to measure social media usage, while the Body Image Dissatisfaction Scale (BIDS) was used to measure body image dissatisfaction. Data was processed in SPSS Version 28 using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear regression, and independent samples t test.There was a noteworthy positive association between social media usage and body image dissatisfaction (r = .56, p < .01). Regression analysis showed that social media usage was a significant predictor of body image dissatisfaction, (β = .56, p < .001) explaining 31% of the variance. Differences by gender were evident, with females showing greater social media usage (M = 44.75, SD = 9.89) and greater body image dissatisfaction (M = 41.60, SD = 9.12) than males. This research puts forward the case that increased social media usage damages the body image perspective of the youth, especially female adolescents. These results need further consideration in light of the need to promote responsible social media use in young people to reduce body dissatisfaction.