The Roles of Self-Compassion and Self-Esteem in the Relationship between the Usage of Dating Apps and Body Satisfaction

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Dating App Usage; Self-Compassion; Body Satisfaction; Self-Esteem; Young Adult

Abstract

This study examines the influence of dating app usage on body satisfaction and self-esteem and explores whether self-compassion can moderate the effect of dating app use on body satisfaction and self-esteem. The study collected 133 samples of Chinese young adult dating app users in Hong Kong (mean age = 21.7; 50 males and 83 females). The short form of the Self-compassion scale (SCS-SF), the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE), the Adolescent Body Image Satisfaction Scale (ABISS) and the time of using online dating apps were employed in this study. The results showed that the frequency of using dating apps is not related to self-esteem (t=-1.31, p=.19), while self-compassion is significantly related to it (t=6.90, p<.001). The interaction between the usage of dating apps and self-compassion also does not have a significant effect on self-esteem (t=1.51, p=.13). Meanwhile, the usage of dating apps, self-esteem and self-compassion are all significantly related to body dissatisfaction (t=2.26, p=.03; t=-2.57, p=.01; t=-5.03, p<.001). Using dating apps is positively associated with body dissatisfaction, while self-esteem and self-compassion are negatively related to body dissatisfaction. However, the interaction between the usage of dating apps and self-compassion does not significantly affect body dissatisfaction (t=-1.10, p=.27). An additional test was conducted to examine whether self-esteem can be a buffer to the negative effects of using dating apps on body dissatisfaction. The results showed that the interaction between the usage of online dating apps and self-esteem has a significant effect on body dissatisfaction (t=-2.33, p=.02). The usage of online dating apps enhances the body dissatisfaction of participants with low levels of self-esteem (t=2.47, p=.02) while it does not affect the dissatisfaction of participants with high and moderate levels of self-esteem (t=-0.26, p=.79; t=0.74, p=.46). These results suggest that self-esteem intervention can be delivered to frequent users of online dating apps to mitigate the negative effects of using online dating apps on their body dissatisfaction.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Grace Yan Lam Lo
AU  - Raymond Chi Fai Chui
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/02/19
TI  - The Roles of Self-Compassion and Self-Esteem in the Relationship between the Usage of Dating Apps and Body Satisfaction
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Technology International Conference 2023 Positive Technology: Possible Synergies between Emerging Technologies and Positive Psychology (PT 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 147
EP  - 166
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-378-8_10
ID  - Lo2024
ER  -