The effects of popularity perceptions and social appearance anxiety on the desire of young people to have aesthetic procedures on social media

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of young people's popularity perceptions and social appearance concerns on their perceptions of aesthetic procedures on social media. This cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. A Personal Information Form, the Popularity Perception Scale (PPS), the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS), and the Scale of Aesthetic Procedure Perceptions on Social Media (SAPPS) were used to collect data. Statistically significant differences were found in the popularity perceptions, social appearance anxiety levels, and aesthetic procedure perceptions of the participants based on their age, their status of having a disliked bodily/facial feature, whether they thought of undergoing aesthetic procedures, whether they used filters on social media, whether they used image manipulation programs, and their frequency of using social media platforms each day. The PPS scores of the participants had weak, positive, and significant correlations with their SAAS scores and their total and subscale scores on SAPPS. The frequency of their usage of image manipulation programs was found to predict the popularity perceptions of the participants and their perceptions of aesthetic procedures on social media. It was determined that nursing students had above-average levels of positive popularity perceptions, social appearance anxiety, and positive perceptions of aesthetic procedures on social media, and these three variables were significantly associated with each other. This research may lead to informing young people about the aforementioned factors with the views and support of young nurses.