The Relationship Between Social Media Usage And Restrained Eating: Mechanism And Intervention

At present,the aesthetic orientation of social culture and online media promoting "thinness for beauty" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people,which makes middle school and college students pursue the goal of weight loss through restrained eating,but excessive restrained eating will trigger overeating,produce a series of negative effects,and seriously damage the physical and mental health of individuals.In addition to the conditions created by social media in the external environment,the individual’s own self-objectification,body shame and self-compassion all play an important role in the mental health and eating behavior of middle school and college students.This study attempts to explore the relationship between social media use and restrained eating among middle school and college students,as well as the psychological mechanisms involved,through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.Based on this,relevant intervention studies are introduced.Specifically,Study 1 used a questionnaire survey to measure the restrained eating,social media usage,self-objectification,body shame,and self-compassion of 667 middle school and college students.Structural equation models were used to explore and validate the relationships between various factors,providing theoretical support for subsequent interventions.Study 2 adopted the qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews on the basis of the quantitative analysis of Study 1,supplemented the life experience,behavior performance and psychological activity process of six restrained eaters about restrained eating,and verified the model of Study1 by inducing the influencing factors of restrained eating through thematic analysis.Based on the results of the first two studies,Study 3 adopted a group counseling intervention method targeting body shame as a limiting restrained eating risk factor.Sixteen students with high levels of body shame and restrained eating were selected and randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group.The differences in data results between the two groups before and after the intervention were analyzed,Explore whether group counseling programs targeting body shame can alleviate individuals’ sense of body shame and restrained eating in practical applications.The results showed that:(1)There is a significant correlation between social media usage,self-objectification,body shame,self-compassion,and restrained eating;(2)Social media usage can directly and positively predict an individual’s restrained eating;(3)Social media usage can positively predict an individual’s restrained eating through the independent mediating effect of body shame,as well as through the chain mediating effect of self-objectification and body shame;(4)Self-compassion plays a moderating role between body shame and restrained eating;(5)Group counseling based on body shame can effectively reduce individual body shame and then reduce restrained eating tendencies.This article explores the influencing factors of restrained eating in middle school and college students through three studies.Not only through the impact of social media usage in the external environment,but also through the combination of the degree of self-objectification,body shame,and self-compassion within the individual.At the same time,group counseling for body shame can effectively reduce the body shame of individuals,thereby alleviating restrained eating tendencies,and contribute the healthy eating and life of middle school and college students.