Association of appearance satisfaction, family relationships and the use of social media as risk factors in the development of eating disorders.

Cilj ovog istraživanja jest utvrditi postoji li povezanost između zadovoljstva izgledom, obiteljskih odnosa, korištenja društvenih mreža i poremećaja u prehrani. Anketa je provedena u online obliku na uzorku od 400 studenata Sveučilišta u Zagrebu akademske godine 2022./2023. Višestrukom regresijskom analizom pronađena je povezanost između obiteljskih odnosa i pojave simptoma poremećaja u prehrani. Točnije, rezultati pokazuju kako su simptomi poremećaja u prehrani prisutniji u obiteljskim odnosima u kojima postoje velike razine kontrole, negativnog komentiranja izgleda i kritiziranja. S druge strane, što je viša razina zajedničkih osjećaja kao što su ljubav, sigurnost, podrška i pripadnost među članovima obitelji, to su manje prisutniji simptomi poremećaja prehrane. Dobiveni rezultati sugeriraju kako ne postoje razlike u pojavi simptoma poremećaja u prehrani s obzirom na sociodemografska obilježja ispitanika, kao ni povezanost između korištenja društvenih mreža, zadovoljstva izgledom i poremećaja u prehrani, ali je nezadovoljstvo izgledom značajno povezano sa spolom. Zastrašujući porast stopa oboljelih od poremećaja u prehrani nisu rezultat puke slučajnosti, već govore u prilog tomu kako obiteljski i kulturološki čimbenici, poput komodifikacije i estetizacije tijela te strahu od debljanja kod osoba s određenim genetičkim i psihološkim predispozicijama mogu stvoriti plodonosno tlo za razvoj poremećaja u prehrani.The aim of this study is to determine whether there is an association between appearance satisfaction, family relationships, social media use and eating disorders. The survey was conducted in online form on a sample of 400 students of the University of Zagreb in the academic year 2022/2023. Association between family relationships and symptom occurence of eating disorders has been found using Multiple regression analysis. More specifically, the results show that the symptoms of eating disorders are more prevalent in family relationships where there are high levels of control, negative commenting on appearance and criticizing. On the other hand, the higher the level of shared feelings such as love, security, support and belonging between family members, the less prevalent are the symptoms of eating disorders. The obtained results suggest that there are no differences in symptom occurence of eating disorders with regard to the sociodemographic characteristics of the subjects and no association between the use of social media, appearance satisfaction and eating disorders, whereas appearance dissatisfaction is significantly associated with gender. The frightening rise in rates of eating disorders is not the result of mere coincidence, they speak in favor of how family and cultural factors, such as commodification and aestheticization of the body and fear of gaining weight in people with certain genetic and psychological predispositions can create a fruitful ground for the development of eating disorders