The Effect Of Social Networking Sites Use Intensity On High School Students’ Body Image Satisfaction:The Moderating Effect Of Functionality Appreciation And Its Intervention

In recent years,a variety of beauty standards have led more and more women to aspire to be “light-skinned,slim and girlish”,“A4 waist” or “cartoon legs”,while men are looking for a muscular figure.However,in the process of pursuing beauty,the incidence of people’s body dissatisfaction is gradually increasing.Teenagers are in a period of rapid physical development,They are very concerned about what other people think of them in terms of their body or appearance,and are more likely to be influenced by the mainstream aesthetic concepts of society,thus reducing their body image satisfaction.The sociocultural theory of body image holds that society and culture will shape ideal body image and form a kind of social pressure,which makes individuals accept and internalize these hard to achieve ideal body type standards,thus causing their body image dissatisfaction.In this process,mass media is the key channel to spread the social ideal body shape,and appearance comparison and internalization of "thin ideal" or "muscle ideal" play a mediating role,thus leading to individual body image dissatisfaction(Thompson,et al.,1999).With the rise and popularity of QQ,Wechat and other social networking sites,teenagers’ social networking sites use intensity has gradually increased,and the social comparison and internalization of appearance ideal is inevitable,which is more likely to cause body image dissatisfaction.Therefore,social networking sites use intensity is an important factor in predicting individual body image satisfaction.However,not all people with high levels of social networking sites use intensity have a negative view of their own physical characteristics,and the relationship between the social networking sites use intensity and body image satisfaction is likely to be moderated by other factors.Studies have shown that individuals with positive body image can filter out negative media information containing body image and interpret the information positively to maintain positive body evaluation.Functionality appreciation is the core structure of positive body image,focusing on and appreciating everything that the body can do.Researchers have found that functionality appreciation interventions may buffer negative effects of media exposure,improve individual body image,and reduce body image satisfaction.However,whether functionality appreciation can moderate the effect of social networking sites use intensity on adolescents’ body image satisfaction has not been explored.Therefore,based on relevant theories and previous studies,this study attempts to explore the relationship among social networking sites use intensity,functionality appreciation and body image satisfaction,further investigate whether the relationship between social networking sites use intensity and adolescents’ body image satisfaction is moderated by functionality appreciation,and explore the strategies of improving body image satisfaction by intervening functionality appreciation.In the first study,750 high school students from 2 middle schools in Sichuan Province were surveyed by questionnaire on their social networking sites use intensity,functionality appreciation,and body image satisfaction.Twenty-eight high school students(14 boys and 14 girls)whose scores of functionality appreciation and body image satisfaction were lower than the total average were selected from the subjects in Study 1 and randomly divided into experimental group and control group to carry out Study 2.The experimental group received eight group interventions of functionality appreciation,while the control group did not do any treatment.All data were processed by SPSS27.0,and the research conclusions were as follows:(1)The social networking sites use intensity predicts negatively the body image satisfaction of high school students.The higher social networking sites use intensity,the lower the body image satisfaction of high school students.(2)The functionality appreciation predicted positively the body image satisfaction of high school students.The higher the level of functionality appreciation,the higher the body image satisfaction of high school students.(3)The functionality appreciation moderates the relationship between social networking sites use intensity and high school students’ body image satisfaction.Specially,for individuals with low level of functionality appreciation,social networking sites use intensity has a more significant predictive effect on high school students’ body image satisfaction;For individuals with high level of functionality appreciation,the social networking sites use intensity has no significant effect on the prediction of body image satisfaction of high school students.(4)The intervention effect of group psychological counseling with functionality appreciation as the theme is significant,which can improve the level of functionality appreciation of high school students,so as to enhance their body image satisfaction.Theoretically,the results of this study deepen our understanding of the relationship between the social networking sites use intensity and body image satisfaction,and explore the effect of social media on individual body image from the perspective of positive body image,enriching the results of intervention research on functionality appreciation.In terms of practical value,the group intervention program of functionality appreciation has important enlightening significance for the prevention and intervention of adolescent body image dissatisfaction,and provides some suggestions and guidance for school mental health educators.