Body Image Concerns: The Impact of Digital Technologies and Psychopathological Risks in a Normative Sample of Adolescents

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Previous research on associations between Body Image Concerns (BIC) and technological addictions, such as Internet addiction (IA) and Social Media Addiction (SMA), has focused on female samples, neglecting the impact they may have on males and the risk factor associated with age. The present study analyzed the correlations between BIC, IA, and SMA and between internalizing and externalizing problems. Methods: A sample of 204 participants (118 females; mean age = 15.88 years) were divided into three age groups (early, middle, and late adolescence) and completed a battery of scales including (i) Body Image Concern Inventory, (ii) Bergen Instagram Addiction Scale, (iii) Internet Addiction Test, and (iv) Youth Self Report. Results: Significant associations between BIC and technology addictions (SMA and IA) appeared both in the total sample and in the subgroups related to gender and age; bivariate correlations between internalizing and externalizing problems and variables were significant for the total sample but only in some of the gender- and age-related subgroups. Discussion and Conclusions: This research has shown how associations between BIC and behavioral technology addictions, especially associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, may vary by the gender affiliation and developmental stage of the individual.

Does the Internet Bring People Closer Together or Further Apart? The Impact of Internet Usage on Interpersonal Communications

“…Heterogeneity also exists in terms of gender, age, and social class. For example, people with a higher social class are less likely to experience Internet addiction [ 49 , 52 ].…”

Scrolls and self-perception, navigating the link between social networks and body dissatisfaction in preadolescents and adolescents: a systematic review

“…The MMMT (Hong et al, 2018) assessed six studies as moderate quality (Ferguson et al, 2014;Meier and Gray, 2014;Tiggemann and Slater, 2014;Brajdić Vuković et al, 2018;Mesce et al, 2022;Sagrera et al, 2022) and ten studies as strong quality (De Vries et al, 2014, 2016Ho et al, 2016;Kaewpradub et al, 2017;Chang et al, 2019;Boursier et al, 2020;Fardouly et al, 2020;Çimke and Yıldırım Gürkan, 2023;Digennaro and Iannaccone, 2023;Martinac Dorčić et al, 2023). Overall, the selected studies set out their research aims and methodologies clearly.…”

“…Sample sizes ranged between 5,070 (Sagrera et al, 2022) and 103 (Meier and Gray, 2014). The study samples primarily originated from Europe (n = 7) (De Vries et al, 2014, 2016Brajdić Vuković et al, 2018;Boursier et al, 2020;Mesce et al, 2022;Digennaro and Iannaccone, 2023;Martinac Dorčić et al, 2023) while a minority were sourced from North America (n = 3) (Ferguson et al, 2014;Meier and Gray, 2014;Sagrera et al, 2022), China (n = 2) (Ho et al, 2016;Chang et al, 2019), Australia (n = 2) (Tiggemann and Slater, 2014;Fardouly et al, 2020), Thailand (n = 1) (Kaewpradub et al, 2017), and Turkey (n = 1) (Çimke and Yıldırım Gürkan, 2023).…”

“…Most of the studies incorporated males and females in the research (n = 11) (De Vries et al, 2014, 2016Ho et al, 2016;Kaewpradub et al, 2017;Boursier et al, 2020;Fardouly et al, 2020;Mesce et al, 2022;Sagrera et al, 2022;Çimke and Yıldırım Gürkan, 2023;Digennaro and Iannaccone, 2023;Martinac Dorčić et al, 2023), although studies were conducted exclusively with female participants (n = 5) (Ferguson et al, "Body image" OR "body perception" OR "body pressure" OR "body ideals" OR "body dissatisfaction" OR "body size perception" OR "body representation" OR "body focused" OR "body concern" OR "body distortion" OR "body shame" OR "body esteem" AND "social network" OR "social media" OR "social network use" OR "social media use" OR "feed" OR "post" OR "share" OR "tag" OR "social network account" OR "chat" OR "follower" OR "social platform" AND "pre-adolescents" OR "preadolescents" OR "preteens" OR "pre-teens" OR "young" OR "adolescents" OR "teenagers".…”

Do Youngsters Reflect the ‘Fake or Real’ Identity, Personality, and Emotion on Facebook?

“…Appearance is a sub-theme that is often used by teenagers to talk about the physical appearance of an individual and the attributes used by an individual (Sagrera et al, 2022). There are two dominant spectrums or topics that form the core of this sub-theme, each of which manifests a major issue involving the spectrum of physical visualization and insecurity (Mesce et al, 2022). Meanwhile, among the issues that are often manifested through this spectrum are the issue of bullying, insults, and lack of confidence (Wang et al, 2019).…”