Weight-Related Bullying Increases With More Screen Time, Social Media Use

Greater hours of weekday screen time, use of social media associated with weight-related bullying in adolescents

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Among an international sample of adolescents, there is an association of increased screen time hours and social media use with weight-related bullying, according to a study published online April 17 in PLOS ONE.

Kyle T. Ganson, Ph.D., from University of Toronto, and colleagues examined the association of screen time and social media use with weight-related bullying victimization among an international sample of adolescents from six countries. The analysis included data from 12,031 participants in the 2020 International Food Policy Study Youth Survey.

The researchers found that greater hours of weekday screen time and use of each of the six social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and Twitch) were associated with weight-related bullying victimization. For each additional hour of social media use, there was a 13 percent increase in the prevalence of weight-related bullying victimization. Twitter use was associated with a 69 percent increase in the prevalence of weight-related bullying victimization. There was variance by country for the associations of hours of weekday screen time and use of the six social media platforms with weight-related bullying victimization.

“These findings are independent of several potential confounding factors, including participant country, underscoring the global relevance of our findings,” the authors write.