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A brief report on the associations amongst social media use, gender, and body esteem in a UK student sample

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Abstract

Research into the effects of social media on personal wellbeing have been controversial in recent years, with research highlighting links between social media use and body esteem. This conceptual replication study aimed to explore relationships amongst social media use, body esteem, and gender amongst UK university students (n = 100). Participants completed measures of social media use and body esteem. It was hypothesized that social media intensity and usage would negatively predict body esteem, with high social media intensity relating to lower body esteem. We find that gender was the only significant predictor of body esteem, with women having lower body esteem compared to men. We were unable to replicate previous findings, as our findings show no relationships amongst social media intensity, use, and body esteem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, Psychology Department, School of Life Sciences and Education, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE, UK

    Hollie Ormsby & Alison Leah Owen

  2. Centre for Psychological Research, Department of Psychology, Institute of Human Sciences, Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UK

    Manpal Singh Bhogal

Authors
  1. Hollie Ormsby
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  2. Alison Leah Owen
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  3. Manpal Singh Bhogal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alison Leah Owen.

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This research involved collecting data from human participants. Informed consent was taken from all participants who took part in this study. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Ormsby, H., Owen, A. & Bhogal, M.S. A brief report on the associations amongst social media use, gender, and body esteem in a UK student sample. Curr Psychol 38, 303–307 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0089-z

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