Social Media and Self-Esteem of Filipino College Students as Mediated by Body Image

Abstract

The advancement in social media use is undeniable and there are many contradictory views on the effects of frequent use. The Philippines was the top among other countries with 83.1% of Filipinos belonging to social networking sites. Also, Filipinos were considered the top users in sharing photos and videos. Thus, this study examined if body image mediates the relationship of social media use and self-esteem of 101 Filipino college students who were conveniently chosen from different departments of a university. A descriptive design using an adopted questionnaire and a constructed questionnaire for literature was employed to gather data. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to generate a model for college student’s self-esteem. The respondents spent an average of 5.06 hours per day in which majority are constantly connected. They have a very good body image as well as high self-esteem. Their body image is found to be related to their self-esteem. However, the daily time spent and frequency of visit to social media negatively relate to their body image and, together with their age and gender, do not affect their self-esteem. SEM revealed that the relationship between social media as to daily time spent and self-esteem was partially mediated by body image. Social media has to affect the body image of the Filipino College students first before it can affect their self-esteem