Main Article Content
Abstract
As media technologies are easily available everywhere, people of all ages are seen to use it widely. Media psychology refers as the understanding of interaction that occurs between human and media technology. Media plays an important role in shaping human behaviour. Now a day, it is seen that media promotes thin body as ‘ideal body image’ which directly or indirectly encouraging the youth to adopt such trend, in return they tends to develop eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia nervosa etc. Objective: This paper took an account of understanding the influence of media on body image and quality of life among youth of Kamrup metropolis. Methodology: The present study was a cross sectional design, conducted among 388 male and female students studying undergraduate courses in science, humanities and commerce in different colleges affiliating to Gauhati University. Convenient sampling method was applied to select the students. Tools: A self-developed sociodemographic schedule, Body area Satisfaction Scale, media pressure sub-scale (SATAQ-4), and WHO BREF quality of life scales were used. Results: Descriptive analysis indicates that, 96.3% students are familiar with social networking media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc.). Pearson correlation was used to find out the association and found that, media pressure was significantly negatively correlated with body image satisfaction (r= -.128*) at 0.05 level and psychological quality of life (r= -.192**) at 0.01 level (2 tailed). Regression analysis was used to see the factors that predicts quality of life and found that media appearance pressure (B= -.245, t= -1.892, p=.059) and body image dissatisfaction (B= .833, t= 9.227, p=.000) made a significant contribution to quality of life in students.