Adolescents and young adults engaged with pro-eating disorder social media: eating disorder and comorbid psychopathology, health care utilization, treatment barriers, and opinions on harnessing technology for treatment.
Open accessAbstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine exposure (i.e., seeing, following, posting) to body image content emphasizing a thin ideal on various social media platforms and probable eating disorder (ED) diagnoses, ED-related quality of life, and psychiatric comorbidities (i.e., depression, anxiety) among adolescents and young adult females recruited via social media who endorsed viewing and/or posting pro-ED online content. We also investigated health care utilization, treatment barriers, and opinions on harnessing technology for treatment.Methods Participants were 405 adolescent and young adult females engaged with pro-ED social media. We reported on study constructs for the sample as a whole, as well as on differences between age groups.Results Eighty-four percent of participants' self-reported symptoms were consistent with a clinical/subclinical ED, and this was slightly more common among young adults. Participants endorsed reduced ED-related quality of life, as well as comorbid depression and anxiety. Among those with clinical/subclinical EDs, only 14% had received treatment. The most common treatment barriers were believing the problem was not serious enough and believing one should help themselves. The majority of participants approved of harnessing technology for treatment.Conclusions Results provide support for engagement with pro-ED online content serving as a potential indicator of ED symptoms and suggest promise for facilitating linkage from social media to technology-enhanced interventions.Level of evidence V, cross-sectional descriptive study.
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Disturbingly high prevalence of body image dissatisfaction, disordered eating pathology and comorbid mental health outcomes were reported amongst young social media users in this review.
“Disturbingly high prevalence of body image dissatisfaction, disordered eating pathology and comorbid mental health outcomes were reported amongst young social media users in this review [57, 66, 70].”
From The social media diet: A scoping review to investigate the association between social media, body image and eating disorders amongst young people (2023) · cites this paper as [66]
The Results section on ED diagnoses and psychiatric comorbidities reports that 84% of participants met criteria for a clinical or subclinical eating disorder, 71% had symptoms consistent with major depression, and 65% had moderate-to-severe anxiety. The paper does not report a prevalence of body-image dissatisfaction; its body-image results concern exposure to thin-ideal content. The sample was females aged 15–25 who engaged with pro-eating-disorder content, not young social media users generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA cross-sectional study found that 96% of included participants followed the thin-ideal on social media, of whom 86% met the criteria for a clinical/subclinical eating disorder, and 71% and 65% reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively.
“A cross-sectional study found that 96% of included participants followed the thin-ideal on social media, of whom 86% met the criteria for a clinical/subclinical eating disorder, and 71% and 65% reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively [66].”
From The social media diet: A scoping review to investigate the association between social media, body image and eating disorders amongst young people (2023) · cites this paper as [66]
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- Authors
- Fitzsimmons-Craft, E. E., Krauss, M. J., Costello, S. J., Floyd, G. M., Wilfley, D. E., & Cavazos-Rehg, P. A.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Venue
- Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity
- Published
- 2019-11-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1681-1692
- ISSN
- 1124-4909 (ISSN-L)
- 1590-1262
- PMC
- PMC7195229
- OpenAlex
- W2985520053
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 3.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21 MH112331, K08 MH120341)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- eating disorders, social media, adolescents, young adults, thin ideal, body image, depression, anxiety, psychiatric comorbidity, health care utilization, barriers to treatment
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Quality of Life, Technology, Young Adult, Social Media
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