Associations between the physical appearance comparison in social media and daily life with disordered eating attitudes in adolescents

Comparing physical appearance with others may lead to dissatisfaction of the body image and disordered eating. Adolescents using social media can make unlimited comparisons between self and images shared by others via social media. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between eating attitudes and physical appearance comparison in daily life versus on social media in adolescents.Validation and reliability study of the Turkish version of Physical Appearance Comparison Scale Revised (PACS-R) was completed and the Social Media Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (SM-PACS) was generated based on PACS-R by the authors. A semi-structured questionnaire about the purpose, type, frequency, duration of social media use (SMU) was developed to collect descriptive data on how the adolescents use social media. Adolescents aged 10-22 years old were included and grouped into early (10-13 years), middle (14-16 years) and late (17-22 years) adolescence. They were asked to fill-in PACS-R, SM-PACS and Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). The Turkish version of PACS-R and SM-PACS were found reliable and valid (Cronbach alpha coefficient:0,914 for PACS-R, 0,947 for SM-PACS). A total of 1384 adolescents (50.4% female, 49.6% male) have completed the study. The mean age was 14,31±2,02 years. The mean daily SMU was 2,53±2,48(0-20) hours in all participants whereas it was shorter in early adolescents (1,92 ± 2,16 hours) than in the middle (2,89±2,67 hours) and late (3,00±2,40 hours) adolescents (p<0,001). The ratio of daily SMU to internet use(IU) and mean weekly SMU were found to be higher in girls (SMU/IU: 0,81±0,27, weekly SMU:5,87±1,91days) than in boys (SMU/IU: 0,66±0,33, weekly SMU: 5,39±2,30) (p<0,001). The mean PACS-R, SM-PACS, EAT-26 scores were 10,18±10,52, 6,55±9,43 and 14,75±9,51; respectively and all scores were lower in males (8,46±9.82, 5,41±9,02 and 13,74±9,39,respectively) than in females (12,01±10,98, 7,79±9,76 and 15,8±9,53, respectively) (p<0,001). There were positive correlations between daily SMU and PACS-R, SM-PACS and EAT-26 scores (r: 0,17, p<0,01, r: 0,19 p<0 ,01, and r:0,10, p<0,01; respectively). PACS-R and SM-PACS scores were strongly correlated (r:0,80, p<0,01) in all participants. EAT-26 scores were positively correlated with PACS-R (in girls r: 0,38 p<0,01, in boys r: 0,39 p<0,01) and SM-PACS (in girls r: 0,33 p<0,01 and in boys r: 0,39 p<0,01) in both sexes. Also, EAT-26 scores were positively correlated with PACS-R and SM-PACS in each group of early, middle and late adolescents (p<0,01).The important finding of this study is that the physical appearance comparison between self and others on social media may constitute risks for disordered eating behaviours as much as comparisons in daily life in adolescents. Keywords:İnternet, Social Media, Disordered Eating, Eating Disorder, Adolescent