Spending a lot of time on Facebook could cause women to feel badly about their bodies, according to a recent study Live Science reported.
An international team of researchers found that the more time women spend on the social media site the more likely they are to dislike their appearance, Live Science reported. This is the first study to link time spent on Facebook to poor body image.
"We focused on women, and particularly college women, because they are under increased pressure to look a certain way, and for their bodies to have a certain shape. This pressure comes from both media images and interactions with peers," study author Petya Eckler, a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom, told Live Science.
For the study, researchers surveyed more than 800 college women about their Facebook use, eating and exercise habits, and body image. Using that information, they were able to predict how often women felt negatively about their own bodies after looking at someone else's photos or posts, and how often women compared their own bodies to those of their friends.
Nearly 86 percent of the women in the study said they wanted to lose weight compared with which 61 percent of American women who wanted to lose weight in a national survey Live Science reported.
They also found that for women who want to lose weight, more time on Facebook led to more attention being paid to physical appearance. This included attention to one's body and clothing.
"Public health professionals who work in the area of eating disorders and their prevention now have clear evidence of how social media relates to college women's body image and eating disorders," Eckler said.
Researchers noted that while there was no causal link between the amount of time on spent on Facebook and eating disorders, it did predict worse body image among participants.
The findings will be presented at the 64th Annual Conference of the International Communications Association.
