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" * I
Published in the Slovak Republic Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie) Has been issued since 2005 ISSN 1994-4160 E-ISSN 2729-8132 2021. 17(2): 338-349
DOI: 10.13187/me.2021.2.338 www.ejournal53.com
Social Media Use and Self-Sexualization Behaviour Among University Girls: A Serial Mediation Approach
Khadeeja Maqbool a, Farahat Ali a, Muhammad Awais b > *, Mudasar Ali Nadeem c
a Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan b Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Sialkot Campus, Pakistan
C Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Abstract
Social media has become the most popular communication and entertainment channel for youth. Prior research has explored social media role in eating disorder, body image and sleep quality but the research related to effect of social media on self-sexualization behaviour is lacking. The purpose of this study is to investigate and to explore the use of social media and its effects on self-sexualization behaviour among university students. In this research total of 485 girls, age (M = 21.4 SD = 3.48) are taken as samples. In this study, the researchers used the convenience sampling technique for data collection. The data was collected from different universities in Lahore. The quantitative survey research design used to collect data. Correlation and serial mediation analysis used to analyse the data. The findings show that the internalization of reward beauty, self-objectification, social media use, and appearance conversation is positively correlated with self-sexualization. In addition to this, the results showed that self-objectification and internalization of reward beauty was not a significant mediator between the relationship of social media use and self-sexualization. The implications of a study related to media educators, campaign designers and parents have been discussed.
Keywords: self-sexualization, self-objectification, Social Networking Sites, social media, Instagram, Facebook.
1. Introduction
Social networking sites (SNSs) introduced the online identity to the lives of youth all over the world. D. Boyd and N. Ellison (Boyd, Ellison, 2007) argued that web media through which people interact around the whole world in various forms like blogging, YouTube account, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, innovative media are free to share their personal information and profile pictures. The interactive nature of social media helps the users to exchange the visual images of themselves with their friends and family members (Perloff, 2014). The primary focus of sharing these pictures is to show the physical appearance and get approval or appreciation from the peer group (Ringrose, 2011). The posting of physical appearance leading the youth to post sexualized images on SNSs. S. Kapidzic and S. Herring (Kapidzic, Herring, 2014) study found that more than half of teens (51.7 %) were posting seductive clothing on a famous chat site while 20.4 % of teens highlighted revealing clothing on their profile. In the presence of these figures and research, self-
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: Muhammad_awais@umt.edu.pk (M. Awais)
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sexualization may be considered as a contributing factor among youth. In this study, we will examine how much our youth is being pretentious while using social media.
The previous studies found a link between SNSs use and body image (Grabe, Hyde, 2009), body dissatisfaction (Eckler et al., 2016; Homan et al., 2012), eating disorder (Harrison, Hefner, 2006) and self-objectification (Manago et al., 2015) but the role of these websites in self-sexualization is not fully explored. This study contributes by exploring the relationship between SNSs use and self-sexualization behaviour in university students. The experience of social media use is different from traditional media because new media is providing surveillance, comparison, and appearance-related conversation option to students. Secondly, our study is taking an appearance-related conversation on SNSs as an independent variable which can also lead the users towards self-sexualization. Previous studies have also not explored the role of appearance-related conversation with self-sexualization behaviour. Many other factors can play a role of mediator between the SNSs use and self-sexualization behaviour (Vandenbosch, Eggermont, 2012). This study has considered the role of mediatory variables such as internalization of reward beauty and self-objectification. The study used the objectification theory framework broadly while the help of social cognitive theory was taken the explain the role of internalization. The acceptance of beauty ideals among university students provides a personal beauty standard to them and this internalization may relate to their level of self-objectification. Moreover, this study measured the different self-sexualization behaviours like applying makeup and dressing is a manifestation of self-objectification among university students.
D. Boyd and N. Ellison (Boyd, Ellison, 2007) argued that users have willingly shared their information through these different social sites and connect to jamming and hang out with their friends. L. Hjorth and S. Hinton (Hjorth, Hinton, 2019) argued that this SNSs money maker projects shared information about products and ideas to their users and shared other entertainment information to different pages of networking sites in a short period which is called user-generated content. Social media is the culture that allowed people to share their creativity and express themselves in their way. It is a type of connectivity in which everyone is sharing each other's thoughts. J. Vaterlaus, E. Patten, C. Roche, and J. Young (Vaterlaus et al., 2015) argued that young adults almost spent half of their day on social media. There are a lot of digital devices that are the source of communication among people, but the smartphone is the most comfortable device for the users that always have internet access which allowed their users to get engaged 24/7 through social media.
Youngsters are using social media all the time to explore and get information about new things. Facebook is the most used site in the US; almost eighty percent of adolescents used new media (Lenhart et al., 2011). V. Rideout, U. Foerh, and D. Roberts (Rideout et al., 2010) argued that SNS use is the most favourite activity among youth. An adolescent must use the computer for their studies or some playing games at this age. SNSs use has become the most favourite and popular thing among adolescents and the most preferred activity of teen's social life. Due to the intense use of social media, adolescent's sexual culture is increasing rapidly. Social media shaped sexuality in substantial and figurative forms which have become more universal (Livingstone et al., 2015). J. Kim, M. Seo and P. David (Kim et al., 2015) argued that mainstream media and new media are directly and positively related to self-objectification among both genders.
APA task force's report on girls' sexualization observed that women are more often sexual than men (Zurbriggen et al., 2007). Women portrayed their bodies as sexual objects. They wore short clothes and exhibited their body. On the other hand, men are less sexualized than women. They showed their bodies as six-packs and muscles.
In this study, we are examining the type of opportunities social media is providing our youth that they are being sexualized. We are also examining sexualizing factors (social media use and appearance related conversation) among youth. Adult girls followed celebrities on social media and demand from their parents for those types of clothes that celebrities wear. In this sense, girls sexualize themselves by using these clothes.
Social networking sites (SNSs) are involved in the lives of adolescence everywhere, with the higher percentage of youngsters 81 % are using it on daily basis especially Facebook, which stands out of the other social apps and the most common social site (Madden, 2013). There is One of the exclusive characteristics of SNSs is to the presentation of mainly pictorial imageries (Perloff, 2014) henceforward, the focus on the bodily look. Sexualization and social media have a strong relationship. Social media is the pioneer of sexualization (APA, 2007; Ringrose, 2010). The above-
mentioned studies show that social media has a boundless consequence and impact on the lives of youth, and it leads to sexualization. The youth is so much fascinated by the SNSs that they upload sexualized images and observe sexualized data on these sites.
J. Trekels, Ward, and S. Eggermont (Trekels et al., 2018) argued that how youngsters disturb their body image using social networking sites. This study also wants to investigate the role of social networking sites in self-sexualization and self-objectification behaviour. Viewers may enjoy sharing sexual images consensually, the distribution of teens' private images create disturbance and traumatize them (Ringrose et al., 2012). The studies show that the sharing of sexual pictures on social networking sites may create abnormalities among youth. These abnormalities are the results of sexual harassment on social networking sites. The youth is so much fascinated by the data shared on these sites that they try to apply these things in their real lives.
Internalization of rewarded beauty. The internalization of reward beauty is the adoption of rewarded beauty standards. In other words, internalization means acceptance of appearance ideals standards and then applying those standards on oneself for praise, admiration, and approval from other others. J. Thompson and E. Stice (Thompson, Stice, 2001) found that women want to look like a magazine and music video model, and they have gone on diet for it. Eating disorder and body-image disturbance are the cause of physical and mental health problems. Personality leads to reduce sexual health and mental health internalizing which is a symbolizing view of one's body (Fredrickson, Roberts 1997). The girls who are addicted to social media and the beauty presented on it may make them fall to eating disorders and health problems. They may not take care of their health to remain slim and smart.
Self-Objectification. Self-objectification means that women increasingly notice themselves as sexual kinds of stuff to be appreciated for their physical appearance and sexual appeal. As stated, the objectification theory by B. Fredrickson and T. Roberts (Roberts, Fredrickson, 1997) daily exposure to sexual content badly affects women. In society, sexual objectification slowly tempts women to adopt this view. Exposure of magazines produced the linking of self-objectification rather than TV (Fardouly et al., 2015; Slater, Tiggemann, 2014). S. Mehdizadeh (Mehdizadeh,
2010) examined the narcissism and self-esteem showed on the huge web of the world Facebook. Social networking sites introduce an entirely new technique of self-presentation. It is a new way to examine and analyse personalities and identities. He selected 100 Facebook users with a correlational study. He found that online activists on Facebook; individuals are high in narcissism rather than self-esteem. Self-objectification is associated with more negative mental health consequences among women except for man.
Social Media and Self-Objectijication. Several types of research have been conducted to analyse the impact of self-objectification on women's psychological well-being and self-perception. Recent research has investigated the depiction of women in a sexualized way and people's perception of them (Daniels, Zurbriggen 2016). K. Karsay, J. Knoll, and J. Matthes (Karsay et al., 2018) researched to investigate that men and women are influenced by self-objectification due to observing sexual media. In this meta-analysis research, the researcher found that online media and gaming media have a conditional effect rather than traditional media. However, findings show that self-objectification equally affected through whatever media used. It reveals that self-objectification is the result of social media. It can be print media or electronic media and both genders are greatly influenced by them.
Self-sexualization. Though there is lack of consensus on self-sexualization definition among researchers, but some has defined self-sexualization as intentional imposition of sexualization on oneself (Choi, DeLong, 2019). In other words, self-sexualization is intentional involvement in sexually appealing activities or one's involvement in sexually expressing activities (Smolak et al., 2014). Mainstream media is the real source of sexualization. In the study of U.S. media indicates that 71 % of music videos are portraying the women as sexually objectifying objects (Aubrey, Frisby
2011), 45.5 % of youngsters Social networking sites (SNSs) have occupied in the survives of adolescence everywhere the sphere, about the percentage of 81 % of youngsters are using the social media on daily basis, especially Facebook, the most used social site this era (Madden, 2013). The exclusive characteristics of SNSs are the show of mainly pictorial imageries (Perloff, 2014). Hence, the priority is on the bodily look (Ringrose, 2010). Sexualization and social media have a strong relationship. Social media is the pioneer of sexualization (APA, 2007). A new trend has been starting to post sexualized images on SNSs.
The music video medium is considered as a high level of objectifying content. Women are sexually objectified in these videos but mainly the sexual body parts are more focused (Aubrey, Frisby, 2011; Ward et al., 2012). For example, almost 41 music videos contain objectification in one content analysis (Ward et al., 2012), women's buttocks are focused on, in 90 % camera shots, and woman's breasts are focused on in 76 % camera shots. Women are represented as sexually objectifying in television programs, the second screen medium. Women are presented as sexually objectifying in television stories, via drama conversation, plots, or performances that are used as a climax the ultimate value of the appearance of women and sexual attractiveness (Vandenbosch, Eggermont, 2013). L. Ward, R. Seabrook, A. Manago, and L. Reed (Ward et al., 2016) proved that the content in which women and men are objectified equally affects both genders.
E.A. Daniels (Daniels, 2018) analysed male sexual objectification on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, etc. They use these sites to maintain and continue their romantic relationships. Social media profile pictures show the whole personality of a person and college students attract each other by profile pictures. L. Vandenbosch and S. Eggermont (Vandenbosch, Eggermont, 2013) showed how young boys perceive the concept of sexualization. This study shows that prime-time television programs, music videos, men's magazines, and pornographic websites are related to the internalization of appearance ideals, self-objectification, and body observation. There is a direct and indirect relationship between these things.
Social Media and Self-Sexualization Behaviour. There are women sexual objectification in every form of media whether it is in social media, TV, commercial, advertising, movies, music lyrics, internet, computer games, sports media, cartoons, animation, magazines, music videos, and lyrics (APA, 2007). These media are involved to show that women are sexual objects. Ward and his colleagues found that media is related to sexual attitudes like music videos have a common feature of sexual stereotypes (Caruthers et al., 2011). There is a great role of media in objectifying women as sexual objects. This type of depiction of the woman increases the rate of sexuality among people. Even the girls idealize the attractive looking women presented on media and try to be like them. Some websites and media depict women as sexualized objects.
P. Hall, J. West, and E. McIntyre (Hall et al., 2011) observed self-sexualization in My Spacexom accounts of female profile photos by conducting the content analysis. The results argued that the self-sexualization rate of the female is low. But body display photographs posted on a swimsuit, bra, lying on sofa revealing their body and instead of their face showing the full body including breast and buttocks only. In one study, college students argued that SNS sites increase their interest in sexual activity with the profile owner rather than dating them or making a relationship with them for the whole life. This study shows that sexualized profile activity of female persuades them to make a flirty relationship rather than to accept them in their life (Moreno et al., 2011). The above-mentioned studies show that the self-sexualized photos increase the rate of dishonesty in the relationships. The males are only attracted to the sexy bodies of the females just for the sake of fun and enjoyment by viewing the SNS sites whether the faces of females are visible or not.
A. Meeus, K. Beullens, and S. Eggermont (Meeus et al., 2019) discussed the role social media and self-esteem in adolescent's life. A serial mediation approach was used to examine self-presentation & self-esteem popularity through social media. The study shows that self-presentation & self-esteem are positively connected for youngsters and they are observing online popularity in social media. Every adolescent wants to be popular in social media among their peer group which turns them negatively related to self-esteem. This study also finds out that when adolescents addicted to social media, they got the power to provoke the user to likes their activity which leads to decreased self-esteem. Social media feedback is the most important thing in an adolescent's life that what other people think about our post and how many likes and comments they have. SNS and self-esteem relationships satisfied their users by liking and nice commenting on their posts (Meeus et al., 2019).
On the basis of social cognitive theory, objectification theory and above literature following hypotheses and conceptual model has been constructed. Both of theories helps us to understand that how social media use and appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram is leading the girls to self-sexualization. Moreover, these theories also explain that why girls adopt the beauty standard of celebrities. The girls adopt these standards to get same benefits as celebrities enjoy in their life like popularity, fame, and romantic success. Moreover, objectification theory explains that certain girl's behaviour like applying makeup and wearing celebrity like clothes is manifestation of self-sexualization behaviour.
Fig. 1. Conceptual Model
On the basis of above literature following hypotheses have been constructed.
H1: Social media use is a significant predictor of self-sexualization behaviour.
H2: Appearance conversation on social media is a significant predictor of self-sexualization behaviour.
H3: Internalization of reward beauty is a significant predictor of self-sexualization behaviour.
H4: Self-objectification is a significant predictor of self-sexualization behaviour.
H5: Appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram is a significant predictor of self-sexualization behaviour.
H6: Internalization reward beauty will be mediating the relationship between social media and self-sexualization behaviour.
H7: Self-Objectification will be mediating between the relationship of social media usage and self-sexualization behaviour.
H8: Internalization reward beauty and Self-Objectification will be a mediator between the relationship of social media usage and self-sexualization behaviour.
H9: Internalization reward beauty will be mediating the relationship between appearance conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and self-sexualization behaviour.
H10: Self-Objectification will be mediating the relationship between appearance conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and self-sexualization behaviour.
H11: Internalization reward beauty and Self-Objectification will be a mediator between the relationship of appearance conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and self-sexualization behaviour.
2. Materials and methods
Characteristics of Participants. Participants of this study were 485 university female students between the age of 18 years to 28 years old. For data collection of study, purposive sampling technique used to collect the data. Purposive sampling was used because Facebook and Instagram's users sampling frame is not available. Moreover, purpose sampling used because only females of certain characteristics (e.g., university students, educated, Facebook and Instagram User) were chosen. Females' students were enlisted from different universities of Lahore city that agreed to participate in the study. Researchers collected the data from the University of Central Punjab, Garrison University of Lahore, University of Management Science and Technology, Punjab University of Lahore, NUML University of Lahore.
Measures. We asked about their demographics that their age, gender, and class in which they were studied. They also give further answers about self-objectification, self-sexualization behaviour, appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram, and internalization of reward beauty ideal.
Time spent on social media. J. Trekels, Ward, and S. Eggermont (Trekels et al., 2018) developed the scale to know that how much adolescents spent their time on Facebook and Instagram on weekdays and weekends. E. Frison, S. Kaveri, and E. Steven (Frison et al., 2016) study also help to create this scale of measurement. In social media use, only the use of Facebook and Instagram has been considered because these two platforms are used most frequently to share the pictures among university girls of Lahore.
Appearance conversations on Facebook and Instagram. J. Trekels, Ward, and S. Eggermont (Trekels et al., 2018) developed the scale of appearance conversation. The same scale has been adopted to measure the appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram. Appearance conversation on Facebook is the adaptive questionnaire which is peer scale questionnaire. It shows us the reliability and validity if adolescents' engagement of boys and girls on Facebook (Clark, Tiggemann, 2006).
Self-sexualizing behaviours. J. Trekels, Ward, and S. Eggermont (Trekels et al., 2018) developed the scale of self-sexualization behaviour in his article. Their scale also based on previous studies (APA, 2007; Smolak et al. 2014; Zurbriggen, Roberts, 2013). The same scale has been adopted to measure self-sexualizing behaviors among girls.
The internalization of rewarded appearance. J. Trekels, Ward, and S. Eggermont (Trekels et al., 2018) developed the new scale of the internalization of reward beauty based on the ideal beauty appearance scale of an existing study (Thompson et al., 2004). The researchers adopted the newly developed scale for the study.
Self-objectification. To analyse self-objectification, we used a modified form of questionnaire on self-objectification from an existing study (Noll, Fredricksin, 1998). To measure self-objectification 10-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (least impact) to 9 (greater impact) was used.
Data Collection Procedure. The researchers visited the above-mentioned universities for the collection of data. Prior permission was taken from the class teacher and visited the respective teachers during the class timings. The participant fills the present study questionnaire during class hours under the supervision of the class teacher. No incentives were given to the participant.
Data Analysis. We used SPSS software version 25 for data analysis and Process Macro by Hayes. Correlation and serial mediation analysis were used to find out the results.
3. Discussion
This study is an effort to fill the gap regarding social media usage and self-sexualization behaviour among youth by considering the internalization of reward beauty and self-objectification as a mediator among youth. The correlation table shows the relationship between independent, dependent variables and mediator. The use of social media is positively related to the appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram. Social media use was positively related to self-sexualization behaviour. Social media use was positively related to the internalization of reward beauty. Social media use was positively related to self-objectification. Interestingly appearance conversation also has a positive relationship with the dependent variable of self-sexualization behaviour. Appearance conversation also was positively related to the internalization of reward beauty and also positively related to self-objectification. All the variables have positive relationships and statistically significant.
In female participants, direct paths of serial mediation show that social media use was positively related to the internalization of reward beauty, self-objectification, and self-sexualization behaviour. Interestingly, the internalization of reward beauty was negatively related to self-objectification but positively related to self-sexualization behaviour in the direct path of the results. In the direct path, self-objectification is positively related to self-sexualization behaviour.
The indirect paths of the model are showing that internalization of reward beauty is mediating between social media use and self-sexualization behaviour. The other two indirect paths (self-objectification and internalization of reward beauty with self-objectification) did not mediate between social media use and self-sexualization behaviour. On the other hand, the second direct path of this study showed positive and negative results. Appearance conversations on Facebook and Instagram are positively related to the internalization of reward beauty, self-objectification, and self-sexualization behaviour. Internalization of reward beauty negatively related to self-objectification but positively related to self-sexualization behaviour in the direct path. The other direct path shows the negative relationship between self-objectification and self-sexualization behaviour.
The indirect path of female results has shown that internalization of reward beauty positively mediates between appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram with self-sexualization behaviour. Self-objectification did not mediate with self-sexualization behaviour using appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram and they did not have a direct relationship between appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram with self-sexualization behaviour. And interestingly indirect path with self-objectification and internalization of reward beauty is also not mediating between appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram and self-sexualization behaviour. Though without mediator they have direct relationships in this study and have strong relationships.
In female findings internalization of reward beauty, self-objectification, social media use, and appearance conversation is positively correlated with self-sexualization. In addition to this, the results showed that self-objectification and internalization of reward beauty was not a significant mediator between the relationship of social media use and self-sexualization. J. Aubrey and C. Frisby (Aubrey, Frisby 2011) found that males are less objectifying their self and body shame than females. Interestingly in our study girls are not objectifying themselves. These finding does not support the objectification theory in female results. P. Hall, J. West, and E. McIntyre (Hall et al., 2011) argued that the self-sexualization rate of females is low. But body display photographs posted on swimsuit, bra, lying on sofa revealing their body and removing of their face and showing the full body including breast and buttocks only. Self-sexualization is a subject for women maybe impacting body image unhappiness and sexual working. Our finding shows that females are less involved in self-objectification but involved in self-sexualization behaviour through social media use. One plausible reason could be the unacceptability of society for such kind of behaviour which is preventing female from objectification. Appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram significantly related to the internalization of reward beauty and self-sexualization behaviour but not significantly related to self-objectification in female participants. Females are engaged in self-sexualization behaviour, they post their sexual photos in which see-through clothes, different poses of their faces but less involved in self-objectification.
4. Results
In this study, we followed the multistep approach to analyse the data by using SPSS version 25 and PROCESS macro-designed by A.F. Hayes (Hayes, 2017). In the first step, Pearson product-moment correlation was used to find out the relationship between variables and at second step serial mediation was used to analyse the model. Before running these analyses, the researcher separated the data for the presence of missing values, non-normal distribution, and multicollinearity. We found 5 to 6 missing values in datasets and we did not add them. Further Skewness and Kurtosis values for each residential ranged between - 2 and +2, thus confirming the normality assumptions (Field, 2013). No bivariate correlation values were found to be above less than .001. We also estimated the variance inflation factor (VIF) values. All the values ranged between 1.245 and 1.841 suggesting in this study that multicollinearity was not an issue (Marquardt, 1970). We measure the mean age of female students which is M=21.4 and the standard deviation of age is SD=3.48. Female education frequency and percentage is B.A/BS 180 (37.11 %), Masters 155 (31.96 %) and MPhil 150 (30.93 %) in this study.
Standard deviation, means, and correlation study of these variables are displayed in Table 1. Total social media use was found to be positively related with appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram (r=.273**, p=<.001) and total social media use was found to be positively related with self-sexualization behaviour (r= .158*, p=.6995) and total social media use was positively found with internalization of reward beauty (r=.314**, p=<.001) and total social media use was positively found with self-objectification but insignificant (r=.096, p=.1544) and appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram was positively found with self-sexualization behaviour (r=.518**, p<.001) and appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram was positively related with internalization of reward beauty (r=.469**p=<.001) and appearance conversation of Facebook and Instagram was positively related to self-objectification (r=.096, p=<.1433) and self-sexualization behaviour was positively related with internalization of reward beauty (r=.428**, p=.0002) and self-sexualization behaviour was found to positively related with self-objectification (r=.027, p<.7363) and internalization of reward beauty was positively related with self-objectification (r=.024, p<.7168). Thus, H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5 are accepted.
For the model, the researchers used the SPSS Process Macro developed by Hayes to analyse the role of internalization of reward beauty and self-objectification between the relationship of usage of social media and self-sexualization behaviour among the university students. We used the model 6 of Process Macro to find out the serial mediation. In this analysis, 5000 bootstrap model was used to create 95 % bias-corrected and enhanced confidence intervals to test the importance of secondary effects which are significant at p=<.001 if the 95 % confidence interval does not include zero. Our two mediator's serial mediation models include one straight and three secondary paths (see Figure 2).
Table 1. Correlational Analysis
Variables M SD 2 3 4 5
1.TSMUse 214.0426 118.74230 .273** .158* .314** .096
2.ACFI 13.0766 5.39730 - .518** .469** .096
3.SSB 22.0809 6.26940 - - .428** .027
4.IRAI 10.4979 5.35203 - - - .024
5.SO 41.5872 21.56039 - - - -
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Note: TSMU = Total social media use in minutes, ACFI = Appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram, SSB = Self-sexualization behaviour, IRB = Internalization of reward beauty, SO = Self-objectification.
Table 2 displays indirect effects for the anticipated serial mediation model. Concerning indirect effects, the first indirect effect of SMU on SSB through the mediator IRB was valued as the product of path constants connecting SMU^IRB(xO and IRB^SSB (yO. The valued indirect effect (SMU^IRB^SSB) was originated to be positive and statistically significant because bootstrap CI values were below zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = .736 to Boot ULCI = .2000). Thus, H6 is accepted. The estimated indirect effect (SMU^SO^SSB) was found positive but statistically insignificant because Bootstrap CI values were above zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = -.0124 to Boot ULCI =.0177). Therefore, H7 is not accepted.
The fourth pathway shows the mediated direct effect of SMU on SSB through the mediators IRB and SO. The estimated indirect effect (SMU^IRB^SO^SSB) was found positively related and statically significant as the bootstrap CI values were below zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = -.0024 to Boot UCLI = .0029). Thus, H8 is accepted.
Table 2. Indirect Effects of social media use and self-sexualization behaviour
Indirect Effect Self-sexualization behavior
ß Coeff. SE Boot LLCI 95 % CI Boot ULCI 95 % CI
SMU^IRB^SSB .1319 .0328 .736 .2000
SMU^SO^SSB .0014 .0070 -.0124 .0177
SMU^IRB^SO^SSB <.001 .0012 -.0024 .0029
Note: Coeff. = standardized regression coefficient, SMU = Social media use, SSB = Self-sexualization behavior, IRB = Internalization of reward beauty, SO = Self-objectification.
To test our hypothesis that internalization of reward beauty and self-objectification performed as serial mediators of the relationship between social media use and appearance conversation (IV) and self-sexualization behaviour (DV), we used the SPSS PROCESS Macro, model 6, five thousand bootstrap sample were used to create 95 % bias-corrected and enhanced
confidence intermissions to test the importance of incidental effects which are important at p = <.001 if the 95 % confidence interval does not include zero.
Fig. 2. Statistical Model of Self-sexualization behaviour
Our two mediator's serial mediation models include one straight and three secondary pathways (refer to Figure 3).
Fig. 3. Hypothesized model of Self-sexualization behaviour
Table 3 shows path coefficient values and secondary effects for the planned serial mediation model. Concerning the indirect effects, the first indirect effect of ACFI on SSB through the mediator IRB was valued as the product of path constants relating ACFI-IRB(xi) and IRB-SSB (yi). The valued indirect effect (ACFI^IRB^SSB) was originated to be positive and statistically significant because bootstrap CI values were below zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = .0461 to Boot ULCI = .2026). Thus, H9 is accepted. The valued indirect effect (ACFI^SO^SSB) was found positive but statistically insignificant because Bootstrap CI values were above zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = -.0193 to Boot ULCI = .0113). Thus, H10 is not supported by data.
The 3rd indirect effect between ACFI and SSB through both the dominant variables, IRB and SO was estimated as X1 y1 X2 y2 .4693(^2610) -.0185= -.1224. The estimated indirect effect (ACFI^IRB^SO^SSB) was found positively related but statically insignificant as the bootstrap CI values were above zero (i.e., Boot LLCI = -.0032 to Boot UCLI = .0051). Thus, H11 was also not supported by the data.
Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie). 2021. 17(2) Table 3. Indirect Effects of social media use and self-sexualization behavior
Appearance conversation on Facebook and Instagram
Mediators ß SE Boot LLCI 95 % CI Boot ULCI 95 % CI
Coeff.
ACFI^IRB^SSB .1111 .0403 .0461 .2026
ACFI^SO^SSB - .0073 -.0193 .0113
.0020
ACFI^IRB^SO^SSB .0002 .0020 -.0032 .0051
Note. Coeff. = standardized regression coefficient, SSB= Self-sexualization behaviour, IRB= Internalization of reward beauty, SO= Self-objectification.
5. Conclusion
This study helps us to understand why adolescents reflect their knowledge of sexualizing appearance ideals as personal morals and are willing to produce on a sexualized attractive them. They are not aware of the consequences of using social network sites so they may relapse to certain physical and mental disorders. The current study shows that girls are less influenced by self-objectification rather than self-sexualization. Moreover, this study could be helpful for parents, practitioners, educators, and health professionals. They can guide the young girls that how social media use and appearance conversation is leading them towards the self-sexualization behavior with the help of self-objectification. More research is required to further explore the area to better understand the SNSs impact on girls.
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