September 25, 2023
Kylie Jenner famously admitted that her signature pout was due to lip fillers, greatly increasing interest and popularity in cosmetic surgery. That’s the power of social media.
But why is social media so persuasive and what is driving young women’s attitudes towards cosmetic surgery?
In a new study from the University of South Australia, researchers investigated just this and found that young women who regularly use social media are overly self-judgmental and more likely to consider cosmetic surgery.
A study of 238 young Australian women (aged 18-29) found that 16% of women had already had cosmetic surgery and more than half (54%) were considering having cosmetic surgery in the future. It turned out that there was. Only 31% said they would not undergo cosmetic surgery.
Cosmetic surgery is an increasingly popular way to change a person’s appearance. From 2010 to 2018, cosmetic procedures and surgeries nearly doubled from 117,000 to more than 225,000. Approximately 7 million Australians (38% of the adult population) are currently considering cosmetic surgery in the next 10 years.
UniSA researcher and PhD candidate Lauren Conboy said the study highlights the serious and worrying impact of social networking sites on young women’s body awareness and attitudes towards cosmetic surgery. .
“The prevalence of body dissatisfaction among young women has been a pervasive problem for a long time, with social media promoting unattainable beauty standards,” Conboy says.
“Young people are the biggest users of social networking sites in Australia, so they are more exposed to unrealistic body ideals.” Not surprisingly, with increased use of social media, cosmetic surgery An increasing number of young women are receiving
“In this study, we investigated how self-compassion may change this relationship to understand what can be done to influence positive psychosocial well-being.
“Self-compassion is a neutral acceptance of flaws. Positive self-compassion makes us kinder and understanding of ourselves. However, negative self-compassion When you have compassion, you tend to overestimate and criticize your own shortcomings.
“Our study found that cosmetic surgery is widely accepted among young women, and that higher social media use is correlated with higher acceptance of cosmetic surgery.
“In particular, young women who over-identify with personal attributes that they believe to be unattractive are likely to feel negative about themselves, and despite being aware of this, these We found that they couldn’t seem to break free from negative thoughts. Excessive self-awareness was the most important factor predicting positive attitudes toward cosmetic surgery.”
UniSA co-researcher Dr John Mingoia said more needs to be done to prevent young women from pursuing unrealistic and potentially harmful body images such as those portrayed on social media. says it needs to be done.
“Social networking sites are clearly a pervasive outlet for comparison and body dissatisfaction for young women. However, because they are so popular, there are many ways to combat potentially harmful appearance-related content. It has become a great platform to spread the message,” says Dr. Mingoia.
“Surveys show that even when women undergo cosmetic surgery, less than 40% of them are satisfied with their body post-surgery.
“Clinicians need to test and ensure the psychosocial safety of young women who may be influencing their media representations of beauty before they go ‘under the knife.’ there is.
“If young women continue to undergo cosmetic surgery without addressing their underlying self-compassion concerns, they may never be happy with their bodies.”
Note to editors:
- The most frequently used social networking site (SNS) was Facebook (91.18%), followed closely by Instagram (90.76%) and Facebook Messenger (85.29%).
- The most preferred SNS were Instagram (34.03%) and TikTok (28.15%).
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Media contact: annabell mansfield mother: +61 479 182 489 E: Annabel.Mansfield@unisa.edu.au
lauren conboy E: Lauren.Conboy@unisa.edu.au
Dr. John Mingoia E: John.Mingoia@unisa.edu.au