Social media and body issues in young adults: an empirical study on the influence of Instagram use on body image and fatphobia in catalan university students

Abstract

Body Image dissatisfaction and fatphobia are two concerns that are becoming increasingly prominent in today’s generation. Previous research has demonstrated a viable link between media exposure and an increased level of body image-related concerns. New media, most notably social media, has introduced a new form of mediated rhetoric that needs to be accounted. Social media applications such as the image-based platform known as Instagram allows for immediate access to a plethora of idealized body images. According to statistics, the age group of 16-24 are the most active Instagram users. This research proposal aims to conduct an empirical investigation on the relationship between Social Media focusing on Instagram use with body image dissatisfaction and fat phobia on Catalan undergraduate students. It is a 3 step experimental research study with a sample of (n=200) male and female participants. Three scales have been chosen to retrieve the data: Sociocultural Attitude towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3; Thompson et al., 2004), Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ; Cash et al., 2004) and Fat phobia scale (Bacon et al., 2001) and Instagram Use-related questions.