(PS13-54) The Role of Appearance-related Comments on Social Media in the Relationship Between Disordered Eating and Self-injurious Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescents

Introduction: Adolescents are at heightened risk for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, with almost a fifth of adolescents engaging in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation (SI). Disordered eating symptoms are a known predictor of adolescent suicide attempts, and social media (SM) experiences are associated with the development of disordered eating behaviors. Thus, the goal of this study is to examine the relationships between disordered eating behaviors and NSSI and SI, and the role of positive and negative appearance-related comments on SM as moderators.

Methods: Participants included 165 adolescents (Mage = 15.87; 41.21% female; 54.55% White) nationwide who completed an online cross-sectional survey. Adolescents completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire - 8-item Version (EDE-Q8) to measure the frequency and severity of disordered eating behaviors. The self-report Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors-Revised was used to measure endorsement of lifetime NSSI/SI, and the Social Media Behaviors and Experiences scale was used to measure the frequency of receiving positive (“Someone complimented my physical appearance on social media”) and negative (“Someone criticized my physical appearance on social media”) appearance-related comments on SM. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between disordered eating and both SI and NSSI, and whether SM comments moderated the relationships, controlling for SM use duration.

Results: Significant associations were found between EDE-Q8 score and NSSI (z = 3.98, p = 7.02e-05, OR = 1.72) and SI (z = 4.01, p = 5.96e-05, OR = 1.79). Frequency of receiving appearance-related negative or positive SM comments did not moderate the relationship between EDE-Q8 and NSSI (negative: z = 1.05, p = 0.30, OR = 1.11; positive: z = -0.43, p = 0.67, OR = 0.97) or SI (negative: z = 1.77, p =  0.08, OR = 1.22; positive: z = 0.22, p = 0.83, OR = 1.02). 



Discussion: Disordered eating was associated with both NSSI and SI, beyond the effects of SM duration and receiving appearance-related comments on SM. Findings suggest that neither SM use duration nor receiving appearance-related comments on SM exacerbated the relationship between disordered eating and NSSI or SI. Future research should consider using a longitudinal design to examine temporal relationships between study constructs.