MEDIA-INDUCED BEHAVIORAL TRANSFORMATION ON SELF-ESTEEM AND POLITICAL ADVOCACY IN PROMOTING YOUTH HEALTH EQUITY.

Abstract

Disordered eating behaviors are becoming increasingly common among teenagers, and if not addressed, they can become chronic. Even non-clinical teenage populations have common disruptions such as body dissatisfaction, erroneously eating, and self-induced vomiting, which have a substantial impact on their mental health and may influence their reproductive health. This study intends to investigate the influence of social media and self-esteem on disordered eating practices and reproductive health among Pakistan's university students. A total of 200 undergraduate and graduate students filled out a questionnaire that included the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ-3), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The participants were separated into two age groups: under 21 (57.0%) and over 21 (43.0%). For comparison study, the sample was divided into two categories: educational level and gender. Inter-variable correlations indicated that self-esteem was adversely related to both SATAQ-3 and EAT scores, suggesting that lower self-esteem is associated with more disordered eating habits and unfavorable sociocultural views. The regression analysis revealed that sociocultural views positively predicted disordered eating behaviors (ß =.25; t = 3.3; p <.01), whereas self-esteem was a significant negative predictor (ß = -0.18; t = 4.1; p <.05), accounting for 4.0% of the model's variance. Furthermore, the findings suggest that disordered eating behaviors may have a negative influence on menstrual health, since body dissatisfaction and bad dieting practices disrupt normal menstrual cycles and hormonal balance. These findings highlight the critical need for targeted interventions through Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC), such as educational campaigns promoting body positivity, social media literacy programs to combat unrealistic beauty standards, and community-based initiatives involving parents, educators, and healthcare providers. Furthermore, incorporating SBCC approaches into mental and reproductive health services, as well as lobbying for regulatory reforms to restrict harmful social media material, can help reduce the impact of disordered eating on adolescent mental and reproductive health.

Keywords: disordered eating, social media, self-esteem, adolescent reproductive health