#fitspiration: a comparison of the sport-related social media usage and its impact on body image in young adults

BMC Psychology

Research

Klara Brixius¹  Kristina Klier²  Tessa Rommerskirchen² 

[1] Institut für Kreislaufforschung und Sportmedizin, Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, Cologne, Germany;Institut für Sportwissenschaft, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Neubiberg, Germany;

关键词: Body image;    Digital natives;    Fitness trend;    Fitspiration;    Social media;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40359-022-01027-9

 received in 2022-08-08, accepted in 2022-12-19,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFollowing and posting sport-related content on social media is wide-spread among young people. To date, little is known about the interdependence between sport-related social media use and the thereby perceived personal body image.MethodsWe conducted an online survey (N = 285) to examine how social media influences the sport-related body image.ResultsIn general, social media are frequently used for sport (n = 136, 47.7%). Resistance training correlated significantly with several motives of sport-related use of social media, and thus, represents the strong online presence of athletic sports. Less correlations could be found in team or other sports. Regarding the perception of body image, it was found that the group of rejecting (negative) body image significantly correlated with the emulation of social media mediated sport-related beauty and body ideals (r = 0.63, p = 0.001), as well as with increased body dissatisfaction when viewing sport-related posts on social media (r = 0.590, p = 0.001). Perceived social pressure and comparison were found to be mediators of the prevailing influence of social media usage.ConclusionsThese results reveal the importance of taking a closer look at socially shaped beauty and body ideals, especially in sport-related contents, striving for more educational campaigns such as Body Positivity and, above all, filtering information. Finally, future research is needed to gain deeper insight into young persons’ usage behavior of social media and its impact on the individual’s body image.Trial Registration The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, Germany (01/24/2022).

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

Fig. 2