The impact of Covid-19 lockdown towards social media usage and body-esteem among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang

• Main Authors: Abdul Hamid, Siti Hazariah, Lee, Siew Pien, Rahimi, Nurul Asyiqin, Balang, Rekaya Vincent, Yuniarti, Falasifah Ani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IIUM Press 2022
• Subjects: RT86.3 Nurse and patient
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/102672/7/102672_The%20impact%20of%20Covid-19%20lockdown.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/102672/; https://journals.iium.edu.my/ijcs/index.php/ijcs/article/download/268/148/1564
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Introduction: Social media usage among children and adolescents has increased significantly especially when COVID-19 struck where prolong stay at home increase free time and feeling of boredom. Despite having remote learning, adolescents exposed to social media that commonly have images-related content that led to appearance comparisons. Research on social media usage among adolescents and the impact on their body-esteem is sparse. Objective: This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on social media usage and body-esteem and the association between social media usage and body-esteem among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 347 adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang from April to June 2022 through a convenience sampling method. Data were collected by using a Google Forms survey and printed questionnaire that was available in bilingual. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation test was used for the data analysis using SPSS version 27. Results: About 37.8% of adolescents stated that they spent more than four hours a day before lockdown and it increases to 48.1% for current use. This indicates a slight increase in social media usage before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. There is no significant association between social media usage and the body-esteem evaluation among adolescents post pandemic. Conclusion: The adolescents in this study seem to have moderate usage of social media and it does not impact on their body-esteem. This indicates the social media usage insufficiently affect adolescents concerned with their personal appearance and beauty.