Duration of Social Networking Site (SNS) use and body image dissatisfaction among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Health Sciences UiTM Selangor Puncak Alam Campus / Nur’ain Nabila Hadi Munir ...[et al.]

The negative body image perception or body image dissatisfaction is a problem very persistent in developing countries particularly among women, leading to health problems such as eating disorders and depression. One of the causes of this disorder is exposure to thin ideals media. The emergence of the Internet and social networking sites (SNS) has since indirectly becoming the source of body image dissatisfaction precipitation, facilitated by social or appearance comparison. This research explores the association of the duration of social networking site (SNS) use and body image dissatisfaction among undergraduate students in one of the public universities in Malaysia. The association of BMI and gender with body image dissatisfaction among them were also investigated. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the population of undergraduate students of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Puncak Alam Campus using quota sampling. Questionnaires containing sections on demographic background, Social Net-working Time use Scale (SONTUS) and Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) to measure the duration of SNS use and body image dissatisfaction respectively, were distributed and among them, 309 were returned completely. After cleaning, the data was cross-tabulated and its association tested with Pearson’s Chi Square. There was an association between the duration of SNS use and body image dissatisfaction (p=.046). Low users of SNS seemed to exhibit lower body image dissatisfaction than average to extremely high SNS users. Females exhibited higher body image dissatisfaction than males (p=.002), which was consistent with previous findings. However, contrary to the previous study, there was significant association between BMI and body image dissatisfaction (p<.001) although higher body image dissatisfaction was found among participants with normal BMI. The study adds new data regarding SNS use and body image dissatisfaction to the body of knowledge in Malaysia.