| Body image is a multi-dimensional concept reflecting one’s perception of the body,included four dimensions: emotional,cognitive,behaveral and attitude dimension.Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods for psychological development,identity formation and body image development.Social media,also known as social networking sites,refer the online platforms such as Weibo,We Chat,QQ,Douyin,Kuaishou,Oasis,Zhihu,soul,Facebook,Twitter,Instagram that allow people to present and share their information and ideas with others(Kaplan & Haenlein,2010).The China Internet Network Information Center(CNNIC)reported that,by June 2022,the number of netizens in China had reached 1.051 billion,with the Internet penetration rate reaching 74.4%.The rise in social media use has been accompanied by an increase in body image concerns as nearly 60% of college students,particulary women,in China reported appearance anxiety and a desire,to improve their appearance through skin care,exercise,makeup,and even cosmetic surgery in a 2021 surveyGiven the importance of social media on body image,researchers have recently sought to create measures on social media influences on body image;One such measure is the Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness Scale(ASMC)was designed to measure the extent to which individuals’ thoughts and behaviors reflect ongoing awareness of whether they might look attractive to a social media audience.Researchers found that the ASMCs had a stable single-dimensional factor structure in the United States sample,and significant correlations with concept-related measures of body image and mental health,supporting good reliability and validity.However,so far,the factor structure,reliability and validity of the ASMC scale have not been verified in the Chinese samples;In addition,the predictive validity of ASMCs score on subsequent body image has not been verified.Therefore,this paper will test the factor structure,reliability and validity construction and prediction validity of ASMCs in China sample.In study 1,researcher uses EFA to explore factor structure,reliability,and structural validity of the ASMCs in different gender in China.The EFA sample included283 women,and 321 men,they completed the simplified Chinese version of the ASMCs and Objectified Body Consciousness Scale-Chinese(OBCS),Eating Disorder Self-Assessment Questionnaire(EDE-Q),The Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale(ACSS),Negative Body Self Scale(NPSS),Fear of Appearance Negative Evaluation(FNAE),Physical Perfectionism Scale(PAPS),The Online Appearance-Relevant Peer Conversations Scale(OARPCS),and a demographic scale.Results showed that the scale showed a consistent single-dimensional factor structure in different gender samples from China.In addition,a medium high correlation was found between the scale and variables related to body image concepts and a weak(insignificant)correlation between the scale and conceptual independent demographic variables,supported good convergence validity and discriminative validity.In study 2,Confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)is used to test the factor structure of ASMCs in new samples to explore whether it can be replicated in the new samples,and further evaluate the correlation reliability and validity of the ASMC scale.In the study,301 women and 283 men completed the simplified Chinese version of the ASMCs,OBCS,EDE-Q,ACSS,NPSS,FNAE,PAPS and OARPCS,and a demographic scale;Results showed that the single-dimensional ASMC scale had stable gender consistency,good internal consistency and retest reliability in the Chinese samples.Further analysis also showed that the ASMC scale in the new scale also had good structural validity and incremental validity,and had a unique contribution in explaining body concern variables(i.e.,negative body self,disordered eating,and acceptance of cosmetic surgery).Study 3 was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the ASMC scale in predicting negative body-related factors in the Chinese sample.76%(408 males,501 females)students participated in T1 completed six months of T2 follow-up and underwent relevant body image measurements(i.e.,fear of negative appearance evaluation,desire for appearance perfection,body shame,and body surveillence).In women,after controlling for baseline T1 levels,higher T1 ASMC levels were accompanied by higher levels of fear of negative evaluation of appearance and desire for appearance perfection.In the male sample,after controlling for T1 baseline levels,higher T1 ASMC levels were also associated with higher levels of fear of negative evaluation of physical appearance and desire for physical perfection.Based on the important role of social media in the formation of body image,study 4 selected Tiktok,a popular typical media among college students,to explore the impact of browsing social media videos and comments on the body self of individuals with different ASMC levels under the China.In study 4,a total of 120 female college students with different levels of high/low were selected.2(ASMC level: high/low)X 2(time: pre-test/post-test)X 3(different types of comments: Appearancerelated/appearance-related plus reality check comments/no comments).After controlling other irrelevant demographic variables,the subjects were randomly assigned to three video conditions with different comment types to receive the intervention.After the experiment,the body Self State Scale(BISS)in the form of visual simulation was used to measure the stateful body satisfaction of the subjects.The experimental results showed that the main effect of the groups was significant,after browsed appearance-related videos,the scores of the individuals in different groups had a significant different on the pre and post test: high ASMC level was more significant.The main effect of comment type was not significant,and female college students with different ASMC levels showed no significant difference in different comment types.The results were further tested by simple effect analysis,and found that there was a significant difference between the pre and post tests of the subjects under the condition of positive appearance comment and no comment,while there was no significant difference between the pre and post tests of the subjects under the condition of positive appearance comment and reality check comment.This suggests that viewing positive appearance comments did not lead to more body dissatisfaction than images without comments as expected,but appearance comments with a reality check reduced women’s body dissatisfaction,suggesting that reality check comments could act as a protective factor and have a positive effect on women’s body satisfaction.Overall,this paper verifies that the appearance-Social media awareness scale(ASMC)has good reliability and validity in the Chinese sample,and can be used as a reliable tool to measure the impact of social media on individual body image.It also finds that over time,higher ASMC levels were associated with higher levels of fear of negative appearance evaluations and desire for physical perfection in both women and men.Finally,based on the research on TikTok videos and comments,found that browed TikTok videos and comments can lead to a significant decline in individual status-based body satisfaction,among which the subjects high ASMC level are significantly lower than low ASMC level.But reality check reviews may have a positive effect on women’s body satisfaction as a protective factor.It is not only beneficial to improve the level of individual mental health and adaptation,but also has a certain preventive effect on individual mental illness. |
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