O impacto da exposição às redes sociais durante o confinamento da covid-19 na satisfação corporal

Abstract

This work approaches the impact of the media and its potential negative influence on the body satisfaction of young women comparing Portuguese and English women. And given the unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact that the sudden massive use of digital media, accompanied by confinement and the need for physical distance, had repercussions in this domain was evaluated. This issue becomes even more important due to its relationship with Eating and Ingestion Disorders. So, 296 women (174 Portuguese and 122 British) between 18 and 35 years old participated in this study. They answered about body satisfaction and the pattern of use of social networks, in two moments (before and after the beginning of the pandemic) through a questionnaire online. The results show that English women use social networks more and more frequently than Portuguese women; however, Portuguese women are more concerned about their appearance and the time they are exposed to the screens. Regarding the concern with the current appearance compared to the beginning of the pandemic, both groups reported more current concern, however the Portuguese women present higher levels of concern. Another relevant factor was realizing that after the start of the pandemic, the parts of the body that most concerned the participants were the face and hair, perhaps as a reflection of the constant exposure to social networks. Finally, there was a positive correction between the existence of concern with their own appearance and the indexes associated with depression among Portuguese women. This study presents evidence that physical isolation, and in some cases also social isolation, and the new format of social interaction via social networks and video calls had negative repercussions on many young women and exacerbated concerns in both cultures studied in this dissertation, more particularly between the Portuguese.

Date of Award	14 Jan 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Patrícia Oliveira-Silva (Supervisor)