Social media engagement, weight perception, and mental distress in Canadian emerging adults: A cross-sectional study

Objective: To examine whether social media (SM) moderates the association between weight perception and mental distress among emerging adults. Participants: University students aged 18–25. Methods: A cross-sectional survey assessing depressive and anxiety symptoms, SM engagement, weight perception, and sociodemographic characteristics. Ordinal logistic regression models were fitted while accounting for the false discovery rate. Results: Lower SM engagement was associated with lower odds of severe depressive and anxiety symptoms, with stronger associations observed for depression. Perceiving oneself as overweight, relative to normal, was associated with more severe depressive symptoms. No moderating effect of SM engagement was detected. Self-identified disability status and perceived financial stress demonstrated the strongest associations with mental distress. Conclusions: SM engagement and weight perception were independently associated with mental distress, but subjective structural stressors (i.e., self-identified disability and perceived financial stress), showed stronger associations, highlighting the importance of considering contextual factors in emerging adult mental health.