Does body appreciation have a moderating effect on the negative impact of social media exposure on body image?

• Main Authors: Buban, Joyce Anne Abraham, Bumagat, Frances Joy Sagadraca, del Mundo, Erika Maxine Juan, Lao, Ma. Kiara Nicole Panes
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Body image; Social media; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_psych/35
• Institution: De La Salle University

Media exposure has the power to affect learning, including a person's cognitive, social, or cultural abilities, behavior, and the formation of a person's worldview and values, including political beliefs, gender stereotypes, and body images. This study proposed that higher social media exposure negatively affects someone’s body image since it facilitates social comparisons based on beauty, eventually leading to a poor body image. Additionally, the researchers sought a moderator that may mitigate any potential harm that social media exposure would have to a person's body image. It is hypothesized that through protective filtering, body appreciation will operate as a buffer against the negative impacts of social media exposure on a person's body image. The study employed a cross-sectional, quantitative research methodology and concentrated on gathering information from 322 Filipino students, men and women aged 18 and above, through online discussion forums on social media platforms like Facebook. A correlation was used to determine whether body image and social media exposure are significantly correlated, while regression-based moderation analysis was used to assess the moderating impact of body appreciation on the aforementioned relationship. Results revealed that social media exposure has a significant negative effect on one’s body image and that body appreciation has no significant moderating effects on the relationship between body image and social media exposure. Therefore, future researchers may decide to expand this study by looking at additional factors that might have a protective filtering effect or would reduce the detrimental effects of SMS exposure on a person's body image.