Does social media addiction and its effects on eating behavior depend on perceived stress?

Social media has become an integral part of our lives. However, social media addiction can have effects on mental health and eating behaviors. The present study aims to examine the associations among perceived stress, body image perception, social media-related eating behaviors, and social media addiction, and to identify the extent to which these factors, along with body mass index (BMI) and age, predict social media addiction among adults. The study was designed as a cross-sectional analytical study. Five hundred ninety-eight adults aged 18 to 64 (mean age 27.1 ± 9.81 years) participated in the study; the sample comprised 69.4% females and 30.6% males. The study was conducted with adults residing in Türkiye. Data were collected via a face-to-face questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of validated instruments assessing social media addiction, the impact of social media on eating behavior, body image perception, and stress perception. The results showed that while social media addiction did not differ by gender, female participants reported higher levels of perceived stress and social media-related eating behavior scores. Perceived stress was positively associated with both social media addiction and social media-related eating behavior. Furthermore, stress and social media-related eating behaviors predict addiction across body image perception groups according to multiple regression analysis. In conclusion, there are significant gender variations in stress and eating habits, and perceived stress is a major predictor of social media addiction. To lessen social media addiction and its effects on eating habits, our findings emphasize the significance of stress management and focused interventions.