SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IS THE RISK FOR LOWER PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, RAISED BODY IMAGE CONCERNS AND INCREASING BMI AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background: In today's society, body image issues are becoming more prevalent among young women particularly female university students. While most studies have focused on the specific consequences of social media addiction and low physical activity levels, however, less is known about how these factors interact to cause body image concerns. Therefore, the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the relationship of social media addiction with physical activity levels, BMI and self-perceived body image among female university students. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between social media addiction, physical activity levels, BMI, and body image concerns among female university students in Lahore, Pakistan. Methods: The data was collected from five different universities. The participants of this study were 200 females with ages between 18 and 25 years (M = 20.93 and SD = 1.710). The questionnaire included survey regarding personal information, IPAQ short version, BSMAS and BSQ 16-B questionnaires. Results: The findings indicated that social media addiction was directly associated with low physical activity levels thus increasing sedentary behaviour among female university students. Additionally, it was also observed that those female students who were more prone to addictive nature of social media, had increased BMI values and body image concerns. Results: The results revealed that social media addiction was significantly associated with lower physical activity levels, increased BMI, and heightened body image concerns among female university students. Higher addiction scores correlated with increased sedentary behaviour and dissatisfaction with body image. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggested the promotion of increased physical activity levels to reduce the social media addiction and body image concerns among female university students to improve their mental health and well-being.