ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1562711
Self-Esteem and Appearance Anxiety among Chinese College Students: The Roles of Social Media Use and Upward Social Comparison
Provisionally accepted
Anqi Shang
Han Bao*- Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
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There is a negative association between self-esteem and appearance anxiety, but the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. This study employed structural equation modeling to investigate interrelationships among self-esteem, social media use, upward social comparison, and appearance anxiety in a sample of 487 college students (48% male; 52% female) from Jilin and Shanxi provinces, China. Our analysis revealed a significant negative association between self-esteem and appearance anxiety. This association was partially explained by social media use and a tendency to make upward social comparisons. Among males, making upward social comparisons was not associated with appearance anxiety. Our findings provide insights into the link between low self-esteem and appearance anxiety in an understudied population.
Keywords: self-esteem, Appearance anxiety, Social Media, upward social comparison, gender differences
Received: 18 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shang and Bao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Han Bao, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 712-749, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
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