The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown Towards Social Media Usage and Body-Esteem among Adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang

Siti Hazariah, Abdul Hamid and Lee, Siew Pien and Nurul Asyiqin, Rahimi and Rekaya, Vincent Balang and Falasifah Ani, Yuniarti (2022) The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown Towards Social Media Usage and Body-Esteem among Adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang. Internal Journal of Care Scholar, 5 (3). pp. 44-51. ISSN 2600-898X

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Abstract

Introduction: Social media usage among children and adolescents has increased significantly especially when COVID-19 struck where prolong stay at home increase free time and feeling of boredom. Despite having remote learning, adolescents exposed to social media that commonly have images-related content that led to appearance comparisons. Research on social media usage among adolescents and the impact on their body-esteem is sparse. Objective: This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on social media usage and body-esteem and the association between social media usage and body-esteem among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 347 adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang from April to June 2022 through a convenience sampling method. Data were collected by using a Google Forms survey and printed questionnaire that was available in bilingual. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation test was used for the data analysis using SPSS version 27. Results: About 37.8% of adolescents stated that they spent more than four hours a day before lockdown and it increases to 48.1% for current use. This indicates a slight increase in social media usage before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. There is no significant association between social media usage and the body-esteem evaluation among adolescents post pandemic. Conclusion: The adolescents in this study seem to have moderate usage of social media and it does not impact on their body-esteem. This indicates the social media usage insufficiently affect adolescents concerned with their personal appearance and beauty. Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Social media; Body image; Adolescents.

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