Social networking activities, body dissatisfaction, beauty ideals and body appreciation in adult women

The aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between different types of social networking activities and body dissatisfaction, internalization of beauty ideals and body appreciation in adult women in the metropolitan region of Buenos Aires. The sample consisted of 121 women aged 18 to 65 (M = 36.59, SD = 12.59). Participants completed a survey on social networks, the EDI-2 Eating Behavior Inventory, the SATAQ-3 Questionnaire on beauty ideals and the BAS-2 Body Appreciation scale. A cross-sectional design was used. Pearson correlations were calculated indicating that a higher frequency of social media activities was positively associated with body dissatisfaction and internalization of beauty ideals and negatively associated with body appreciation. Posting transient status updates and checking to see what their contacts are doing were found to be the activities most associated with negative aspects of body image. The Macro Process was used to carry out mediation and moderation analysis. The results indicated that within the social networking activities, transient status updates had no direct effect on body dissatisfaction but there was a significant indirect effect through the mediating role of body appreciation. Age was not a moderator of this mediation. Body appreciation was shown to be a protective variable for body dissatisfaction towards certain activities in social networks in adult women.