ABSTRACT
Objective
To evaluate relationship between media influence and use of social networks in the body image (BI) of female teenagers.
Methods
Transversal study involving students of public school and non-governmental organization in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Besides the social-demographic variables, the teenagers were evaluated about anthropometric measurements. For the evaluation of the BI it was used the Brazilian Scale of Silhouettes, and for the influence of the media it was used the subscale 1 of The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale (SATAQ-3). Questions about the social media frequency of access were applied to measure the influence of these medias.
Results
212 females (14.8; DP 1.69 years) participate in the study, 65.1% normal weight range, belonging D and E social class, most of mother’s been high school graduated; 85.8% were unsatisfied with BI and the majority desires a smaller silhouette. Those that chose smaller figures had higher values in the SATAQ-3 (p < 0.001). The daily access (more than 10 times) to Facebook and Instagram increased the chance to be BI unsatisfied 6.57 and 4.47 respectively.
Conclusion
The media – including the social networks – is associated with BI dissatisfaction among female teenagers in our sample.
Social media; body image; adolescents; social networking