Social Justice Implications for Development Communication: A Case Study of Body Dissatisfaction Disorder

Abstract

The aim of this study was to broaden development communication on how it deals with building the capacity of people to live meaningful and expressive lives. We examined users of Facebook and Instagram who exhibit body dissatisfaction beliefs and eating disorder (ED) behaviours. An important objective was to examine the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among young adult users of social media. Another objective was to examine if body dissatisfaction among these users is associated with ED behaviours. The target population for the study constituted students at a midsize university in the United States. A self-administered web survey was used to collect information about individuals’ use of social media and its relation to body dissatisfaction, and consequently the prediction of ED behaviours. Correlational analyses were performed to answer the research question and test H₂. Hierarchical regression was run to test H₁. Regressions corresponding to the path model were run to test H_3a and H_3b. This study showed the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among users of social media, an association between body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating behaviours, and further provided empirical evidence that attitude, norms and behaviour control exert an influence on intentions, which then influence disordered eating behaviour. The need for the present study was precisely to establish such a theory-based premise. This study then demonstrated how social media may be used as sites for development communication to combat and mitigate unhealthy physical appearance-based feelings and ideas, and potentially stop them from developing into more serious problems such as EDs.