Influence of Peer Body Shape Norm and Peer Pressure Related to Body Shape on Social Media on Body Image Over-distortion of Early Adolescent Girls

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the characteristics of early adolescent girls with an over-distorted body image and to examine the influence of peer descriptive norm and peer injunctive norm related to body shape and peer pressure for thinness on social media on body image over-distortion. The participants were 505 female adolescents in the 1st and 2nd grades of middle school. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and binary logistic regression were used to analyze the data with SPSS 26.0. The results were as follows. First, the body image over-distortion group contained more 2nd-grader early adolescent girls than 1st graders and approximately three-quarters of the body image over-distortion group had previously attempted to lose weight. Second, peer pressure for thinness on social media significantly predicted whether early adolescent girls were in the body image over-distortion group compared to the non-distortion group. These outcomes suggest that it is necessary to create a social media culture that encourages early adolescent girls to have a realistic and healthy body shape. The results also highlight the importance of developing social media literacy education programs that inform early adolescents of the potential harm of negative comments on social media, and teach them how to recognize and dismiss indiscriminate and harmful comments and contents on social media.