ArticleEating behaviors2023
The impact of social media use on body image and disordered eating behaviors: Content matters more than duration of exposure.
Article in Eating behaviors, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of social media use among rural US adolescents and associated health outcomes.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Body shape concerns among Jordanian university students: prevalence, correlates, and association with social media use.Future science OA · 2026Article
- Social Media Disorder, Mental Health, and Physical Activity.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Appearance-related social media behavior and eating disorder pathology: evidence from the german social media appearance preoccupation scale in nonclinical and clinical samples.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Social Media Use and Health: What We Have Known So Far, and What We Need to Investigate in the Future.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Training the algorithm: Agency and algorithmic injustice in Instagram's 'whitewashed' health and fitness spaces.New media & society · 2026Article
- Desire to Weigh Less and Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors Among U.S. Adults: Evidence From NHANES 2017-2018.Obesity science & practice · 2026Article
- Scrolling Toward Dissatisfaction? A Longitudinal Examination of Short-Form Video Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating Among Nurses.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Social Support and Locus of Control in Subclinical Eating-Disorder Tendencies in a Romania-Based Convenience Sample.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors among female students at Birzeit university: a cross-sectional study.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Tick-Tock, the Time Has Come: Leveraging TikTok to Understand, Prevent, and Treat Eating Disorders.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- Disordered eating behaviors, food insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduate students in the United States: a systematic review.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- The algorithm of dissatisfaction: social media and body image crisis among university students.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- An exploratory study on portion size estimation errors: psychological correlates of portion size estimation errors in a non-clinical sample with normal-weight.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2026Article
- Investigating the relation between social media, dating app use and body image dimensions: A cross-country study.British journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Positive, Neutral, or Just Normal? A Focus Group Study on Adolescents' Knowledge, Familiarity and Perceived Effectiveness of Body Positivity and Body Neutrality on Social Media.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Young Adults' Interactions With Food and Nutrition Content on Social Media and Implications for Intervention Design: Semistructured Interview Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- TikTok and Instagram as Putative Social Media in Promoting Healthy Eating Habits in Youths At-Risk for Eating/Feeding Disorders and Body Image Dissatisfaction.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Association of Body Image, Body Weight and Social Media Use: A Narrative Review of Observational and Experimental Evidence of the Last Decade.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Social Media and High-Risk Eating Behaviors in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social media use is rapidly expanding in terms of frequency, duration, and the diversity of platforms available. Given evidence for associations between social media use, body image disturbances, and disordered eating it is important to identify potentially harmful aspects of social media use that could serve as intervention targets. This study surveyed two demographically diverse undergraduate student cohorts in 2015 and 2022 to compare patterns in social media use, body image, and disordered eating behaviors between samples, including as a function of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to test the hypothesized moderating role of specific content consumed in the association between social media use and maladaptive outcomes. Participants in 2022 reported greater body image disturbances, more frequent vomiting and laxative use, and more time spent on a greater number of social media accounts, with significantly greater use of image-based platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. Moderated regression analyses suggest that type of content consumed, but not the amount of time spent on social media or diversity of platforms utilized, is associated with body image disturbances and disordered eating behaviors after controlling for gender and body mass index. Specifically, exposure to weight loss content was associated with lower body appreciation, greater fears of negative appearance evaluation, and more frequent binge eating. Contrary to initial hypotheses, exposure to body positivity/neutrality content did not have protective effects. Findings suggest that interventions targeting negative consequences of social media use should focus on addressing content consumed, rather than time spent on social media platforms.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.