Social Comparison Orientation as a Mediator Between Social Media Integration and Body Shape Concern, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents and Young Adults in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Preeti Trivedi; Ramghulam Razdan; Garv Jani

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.89748

Social Comparison Orientation as a Mediator Between Social Media Integration and Body Shape Concern, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents and Young Adults in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author(s)	Ms. Preeti Trivedi, Prof. Dr. Ramghulam Razdan, Mr. Garv Jani
Country	India
Abstract	Background. Social media use has been linked with poorer mental health in young people, but the associations are small and the mechanisms are unclear. We tested whether social comparison orientation accounts for the associations between social media integration and body shape concern, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults in India. Methods. In this cross-sectional survey, 450 participants aged 13 to 25 years who used social media for at least two hours daily were enrolled at 12 sites between January and December 2025; 410 were analysed after excluding 40 entries with identical responses across every item of a scale. Measures were the Social Media Use Integration Scale (SMUIS), the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM), the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ-8C), the GAD-7, and the PHQ-9. Analyses used Pearson correlation, multiple regression, and bootstrapped mediation (5,000 resamples). Results. Mean age was 18.27 years (SD = 2.75); 48.3% were female. SMUIS correlated with BSQ-8C (r = .19), GAD-7 (r = .18), and PHQ-9 (r = .14), and remained a significant predictor after adjustment for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and daily hours of use. Daily hours were unrelated to body shape concern (r = .00). INCOM mediated all three associations: the indirect effect accounted for 62% of the SMUIS and body shape concern association (full mediation), 29% for anxiety, and 22% for depressive symptoms (partial mediation). Men and women did not differ on any study variable. Conclusions. In this sample, how deeply social media was integrated into daily life, rather than the time spent on it, was associated with distress, and social comparison orientation statistically accounted for much of the link with body shape concern. The cross-sectional design cannot establish temporal order, and longitudinal studies are needed.
Keywords	social media; social comparison; body image; anxiety; depression; adolescents; young adults; mediation; India
Field	Sociology > Philosophy / Psychology / Religion
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-10-14
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.89748

View / Download PDF File

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Social Comparison Orientation as a Mediator Between Social Media Integration and Body Shape Concern, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents and Young Adults in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Share this