Media Pressure and Body Image Depression (BID) Among Chinese High School Students: The Serial Mediating Effects of Future Goals and Self-Esteem

Abstract Based on “stress coping” and “self-determination” theory, the present study aims to explore the potential intervention path of media social pressure affecting body image depression in Chinese high school students by examining the relationships between four variables: media social pressure, future goals, self-esteem, and body image depression. The study sample comprised 825 high school students from four middle schools in Guangdong and Yunnan provinces, aged between 14 and 19 (M ± SD = 15.87 ± 0.98). The results showed that, first, 57.7% of the surveyed high school students had different degrees of BID, and that the girls’ BID score was significantly higher than that of boys (t = -8.69, p < 0.001). Second, media pressure significantly positively predicted BID in high school students. Third, future goals and self-esteem were shown to play separate mediating roles between media stress and BID. Fourth, the indirect effect between media stress and BID was found to be realized through the chain mediating effect of future goals and self-esteem. The implications as well as the shortcomings and prospects of the present study are also discussed.