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Ask and you shall receive: Desire and receipt of feedback via Facebook predicts disordered eating concerns
Author(s) -
Hummel Alexandra C.,
Smith April R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.22336
Subject(s) - disordered eating , psychology , receipt , intervention (counseling) , style (visual arts) , social psychology , social media , sample (material) , eating disorders , clinical psychology , psychiatry , chemistry , archaeology , chromatography , world wide web , computer science , political science , law , history
Objective The current study examined whether certain types of Facebook content (i.e., status updates, comments) relate to eating concerns and attitudes. Method We examined the effects of seeking and receiving negative feedback via Facebook on disordered eating concerns in a sample of 185 undergraduate students followed for approximately 4 weeks. Results Results indicated that individuals with a negative feedback seeking style who received a high number of comments on Facebook were more likely to report disordered eating attitudes four weeks later. Additionally, individuals who received extremely negative comments in response to their personally revealing status updates were more likely to report disordered eating concerns four weeks later. Discussion Results of the current study provide preliminary evidence that seeking and receiving negative feedback via social networking sites can increase risk for disordered eating attitudes, and suggest that reducing maladaptive social networking usage may be an important target for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing disordered eating attitudes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2015; 48:436–442)