Associations between social media use, body dissatisfaction, and self-efficacy among female adolescent ballet students / Ana Ramos (2021)

Adolescence constitutes a critical period in the development of body image, which is mainly established through the process of social comparison. Social media offers opportunities to connect and compare with virtually anyone on these platforms. Ballet values physical attributes that, in addition to media depicted body ideals, contribute to body dissatisfaction when one cannot meet these internalised depictions. This study contributes to the growing literature on the effects of social media use among young people, and specifically within dance contexts, being the first to investigate its impact on dance-specific self-efficacy among adolescent ballet students and complementing previous research on its association to body dissatisfaction.

Forty young ballet students between 13 to 19 years of age completed an online questionnaire that collected data on social media use, frequency of comparison to dancerelated content, orientation of social media use, and self-reported measures of body dissatisfaction and dance-specific self-efficacy. Frequency of comparison to dance-related content emerged as a predictor for body dissatisfaction amongst recreational students. Dance-specific self-efficacy was negatively correlated to average daily hours spent on social media among pre-professional students, inferring that the more time spent on these platforms relates to low levels of self-efficacy. No relationship was found between body dissatisfaction and self-efficacy. Increased self-efficacy was associated with liking other’s content on social media, whilst commenting on others’ posts was related to increased body dissatisfaction.

Findings from this study highlight the need to provide dancers with the necessary tools to use social media and engage in the inherent comparisons characteristic of their developmental stage, with critical thinking skills that may allow for positive outcomes. Keywords: social media, social comparison, adolescent ballet students, body dissatisfaction, self-efficacy.