Social media use and weight bias internalization: association moderated by age and weight perception.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The current study examined whether weight perception or age moderated associations between time spent on image-based social media and weight bias internalization (WBI). METHODS: Data come from the baseline visit of the Tracking Our Lives Study, a randomized control trial of college women (n = 200). Participants completed questionnaires assessing time spent on social media (continuous, overall and individual platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat), WBI (continuous), weight perception (perceive their weight as "overweight" vs. do not perceive their weight as "overweight"), age (continuous, 18-49 years), and confounders (race/ethnicity, parent education, sexual orientation, and BMI). Adjusted zero-inflated Poisson regressions were performed to determine if weight perception and age moderated associations between time spent on image-based social media and WBI. RESULTS: As expected, we found a positive association between overall time spent on image-based social media and WBI (ß = 0.826, p < 0.001). In moderation analyses, the strength of the association was weakened among women who perceived their weight as "overweight" (ß=-0.018, p = 0.006). Associations also weakened with age (ß=-0.001, p < 0.001). The association between time spent on Instagram and WBI was also weakened with age (ß=-0.014, p = 0.018), which was the only significant moderation found for individual social media platforms. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that image-based social media use is more strongly associated with increases in WBI among younger women.

There is research reporting that college women who spend an increased amount of time on image-based social media apply more negative-based weight stereotypes to oneself, leading to weight-based self-degradation. This is known as weight bias internalization. However, there may be things that make social media more or less harmful for college women. The goal of this study was to see if a woman's age or their perception of their weight changed the relationship between the amount of time spent on image-based social media and weight bias internalization. Data come from 200 college women who completed questionnaires to determine time spent on social media, their level of weight bias internalization, how they perceived their weight, age, and other demographics. Results showed that women who perceive their weight as "overweight" had a weaker association between time spent on all image-based social media and weight bias internalization, as did older women. Our results suggest that younger women may be more susceptible to influences on social media that increase their weight bias internalization. These results can be used to identify those who may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing weight bias internalization and prevent later health consequences as a result of having more weight bias internalization.