The light and the dark side of social media use: Depression, anxiety, and eating attitudes among adolescents

Abstract

In the current study, we explored the links between social networking activity, eating attitudes (EA), anxiety, and depression among adolescents. We used a cross-sectional design. Our sample consisted of 532 males and females, aged 12 to 15 (M = 13.55, SD = 0.90), from the Eastern side of Romania. We analyzed our data using three different pathways to explore these relationships on the overall sample, as well as the at-risk for eating disorders (ED) group (n = 134), and the non-ED-risk (n = 398) samples. The results suggested that depressive and anxiety symptoms partially mediated the relationship between social networking and eating attitudes in the overall group and in the not-at-risk for ED group, but not in the at-risk for ED sample. When controlling for gender, social networking use partially mediated the relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms and eating attitudes in the overall group and the not-at-risk for ED group, and a total mediating effect within this relationship in the at-risk ED sample was also found. In adolescents with symptoms of potential ED, social networking use seemed to have a protective role compared to the not-at-risk sample. The present study suggested that social networking use might increase the chances of developing unhealthy eating attitudes in adolescents who are not-at risk to develop an eating disorder, but, at the same time, it might play a protective role (instead of a harmful one) for adolescents who already developed such symptoms. Results are discussed concerning their clinical and practical implication for adolescents' physical and mental health, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the potential protective role of social media use for adolescents with ED symptoms.