The mediating role of the cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between the use of social media and body appreciation

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the connections between appreciation for one's body and cognitive emotion regulation methods and social networking addiction. The study's specific goal is to investigate the mediating function of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (M-CERS) in the connection between appreciation for one's body and social networking addiction, taking into account potential variations in body appreciation levels among genders and age groups. The sample consisted of 423 adults from different age groups. The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (Andreassen et al., 2016), The Body Appreciation Scale (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015), and The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2007) were used to measure the participants' levels of social media addiction, body appreciation, and cognitive emotion regulation processes. The results of the correlation analyses showed that there was a negative connection between body appreciation and dysfunctional cognitive emotion regulation methods, positive connections between social networking addiction and dysfunctional strategies, and a negative connection between social networking addiction and functional strategies. Although social networking addiction does not directly cause a decrease in appreciation for one's body, mediation analyses have shown that it does so indirectly through the use of dysfunctional cognitive emotion regulation processes. Though there were notable variations in levels of body appreciation throughout age groups, levels of appreciation for one's body did not vary significantly between genders. When age was included, the mediation pathway through dysfunctional cognitive emotion regulation strategies persisted, and the overall model remained statistically significant. Age directly affected body appreciation in a minor way. Future research directions and clinical implications were discussed. Keywords: social media addiction, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, body appreciation, age groups