Impact of social media on mental health and body image dissatisfaction among Saudi women

As a pervasive and integral part of modern daily life, social media has profound negative impacts on the mental health and body image of individuals, especially women, by promoting unrealistic standards of beauty through edited images, promotional content, and constant social comparisons. This phenomenon is even more challenging in conservative and traditional societies such as Saudi Arabia, where cultural values, religious norms, and social expectations play key roles in shaping individual identity and social relationships, and can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction with appearance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of social media use on body image dissatisfaction and mental health of women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, 384 women aged 18 to 65 years living in Riyadh were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected using Maziri, Littleton et al. and Goldberg and Hiller questionnaires with a 5-point Likert scale and analyzed by structural equation modeling in LISREL software α. The findings showed that more use of social networks has a positive and significant effect on body image dissatisfaction and a negative and significant effect on mental health, and also dissatisfaction with body image as a mediator that reinforces this negative effect. As a result, excessive use of social networks negatively affects women's mental health through increased body image dissatisfaction, and it is suggested that educational and awareness interventions be designed to reduce the associated negative effects.