Internet Addiction and Social Appearance Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of the present study is to analyze average effect size of the relationship between internet addiction and social appearance anxiety utilising the meta-analysis method. The study included 23 studies published between 2016 and 2022, and the study sample was composed of Turkish participants. The number of participants was 8957. Analysis results showed that the heterogeneity was significant and high. The general effect size was found to be significant in the relationship between internet addiction and social appearance anxiety, it had a medium effect size. However, moderating roles of the year of publication and education level were not found to be significant. Funnel plot analysis was performed to determine publication bias. Egger’s regression test was also performed, which was not significant at a 95% confidence interval. No significant difference was found between observed in Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill test and corrected effect size. All these analyses indicate that there is no publication bias. The findings of the present study are discussed on basis of the relevant literature.