ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025
Self-esteem and appearance anxiety among Chinese college students: the roles of social media use and upward social comparison.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Relationships between problematic social media use and social comparison: a meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- "Looking up" linked to feeling down: a meta-analysis of online upward social comparison and psychological maladjustment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Network Structure of Body Image Disturbance in Chinese Adolescents and Emerging Adults: A Validation and Comparison Study.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Article
- Unpacking the indirect association between problematic short-form video use and appearance anxiety.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Brief Mindfulness Meditation Protects Chinese Young Women's Body Image from Appearance-Focused Social Media Exposure: An Online Randomized Controlled Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Causes and intervention strategies for appearance anxiety: a critical review of recent advances.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- How peer support and pressure shape career indecision: the mediating role of career calling and the buffering role of internalized prosocial values.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Within-person associations of reallocating recreational screen time to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with depressive symptoms among university students with disabilities: an intensive longitudinal study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Observational
- Cyber upward social comparison and well-being among college students: the chain mediating roles of self-esteem and emotional regulation.BMC psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the mechanisms underlying the association between self-esteem and appearance anxiety, and whether these mechanisms differ by gender. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we investigated interrelationships among self-esteem, social media use, upward social comparison, and appearance anxiety in a sample of 487 college students (52% female) from Jilin and Shanxi provinces, China. Our analysis showed a significant negative correlation between self-esteem and appearance anxiety. This association was partially explained by social media use and a tendency to make upward social comparisons, and this indirect effect was found to be moderated by gender. Specifically, among males, making upward social comparisons was not associated with appearance anxiety. Our findings provide insights into the link between low self-esteem and appearance anxiety in an understudied population.
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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.