associations between social media use and disordered eating behaviors in adolescents

Social media use often increases during adolescence, and facilitates social comparison practices, which can increase the risk for the development of disordered eating behaviors. Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. Early recognition of subclinical symptoms in adolescents is of great importance in the prevention of a clinical diagnosis. This study aims to investigate associations between social media use and the presence of four subclinical disordered eating behaviors: 1) emotional eating, 2) uncontrolled eating, 3) compensatory behaviors, and 4) binge eating symptoms. A sample consisting of 1729 adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years old (Mage = 13.81) from the Generation R cohort study based in Rotterdam was used to examine these associations. Results showed positive associations between increased social media use and emotional eating, uncontrolled eating and compensatory behaviors. Gender was a significant moderator only in the association between social media use and subclinical binge eating symptoms.