Body-Esteem, Self-Esteem and Loneliness among Social Media Young Users. 2022

Lavinia Maria Pop, and Magdalena Iorga, and Raluca Iurcov
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, 700554 Iasi, Romania.

The use of social networking sites for socializing, having fun, solving academic tasks or even getting counselling for health-related problems is now inevitable. A total of 427 medical students, who are users of social media sites, were included in the research. Data about socio-demographic, anthropometric, and self-rated items regarding satisfaction with physical and mental health were collected. Three psychological tools were also used to measure self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), body-esteem (Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults) and loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale). Collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Students use these networks for socialization (49.0%), entertainment (31.1%) and academic tasks (19.9%), spending 3.38 ± 0.80 h per day on SNSs. Less than half of them (47.5%) compared themselves to other SNS profiles. The use of Snapchat was found to be strongly positively correlated with self-esteem, and weight status was negatively correlated with the use of TikTok. More than three-quarters declared that they exercised to lose weight or to prevent weight gain. Participants were found to have a high level of body esteem. Almost half of the students proved to have a moderate to a high level of loneliness. Age and gender were found to be important: the younger the user, the higher the scores for loneliness and feeling depressed, and the greater the number of hours on SNSs. The total score for self-esteem was significantly higher in men than in women, and male students appreciated themselves as being in a better state of mental health than women. The results prove a relationship between the use of SNSs and the presence of loneliness, self-esteem and body-esteem, with gender differences. However, the use of SNSs should not be neglected in clinical settings, and are a good means of reaching patients and providing medical and psychological intervention.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008132 Loneliness The state of feeling sad or dejected as a result of lack of companionship or being separated from others. Homesickness
D008297 Male Males
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D012649 Self Concept Persons' view of themselves. Self Esteem,Self Perception,Self Confidence,Self-Perception,Concept, Self,Confidence, Self,Esteem, Self,Perception, Self,Perceptions, Self,Self Esteems,Self Perceptions,Self-Perceptions
D013337 Students, Medical Individuals enrolled in a school of medicine or a formal educational program in medicine. Medical Student,Medical Students,Student, Medical
D060756 Social Networking Individuals connected by family, work or other interests. It also includes connectivity facilitated by computer-based communications. Social Networks,Network, Social,Networking, Social,Social Network
D061108 Social Media Platforms that provide the ability and tools to create and publish information accessed via the INTERNET. Generally these platforms have three characteristics with content user generated, high degree of interaction between creator and viewer, and easily integrated with other sites. Folksonomy,Mobile Social Media,Mobile Social Networks,Social Media Messaging,Social Tagging,Social Medium,Twitter Messaging,Web 2.0,Folksonomies,Media Messaging, Social,Media, Social,Messaging, Social Media,Messaging, Twitter,Mobile Social Medias,Mobile Social Network,Social Media Messagings,Social Media, Mobile,Social Network, Mobile,Social Taggings,Tagging, Social,Web 2.0s

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