{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T05:55:27Z","timestamp":1790920527789,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790899200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Smartphone addiction, body image concerns, eating disorders, and physical activity are interconnected issues affecting many young people, regardless of gender. This study examines differences in smartphone addiction, body image, eating disorders, and physical activity between male and female participants.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A cross-sectional study was conducted with 318 university students (168 males, 150 females) in Saudi Arabia. There average age was of 20.86 \u00b1 3.47 years, a height of 168.24 \u00b1 11.36 cm, and a weight of 65.26 \u00b1 18.32 kg. Data were collected via an online survey using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ-19), Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF). All instruments demonstrated acceptable reliability (Cronbach\u2019s \u03b1 &amp;gt; 0.70) in previous validation studies. Statistical analysis employed Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis tests with a significance level of\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      No significant differences were found in smartphones addiction (\n                      <jats:italic>z<\/jats:italic>\n                      = \u22120.64,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.52), body image (\n                      <jats:italic>z<\/jats:italic>\n                      = \u22120.32,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.75), physical activity (\n                      <jats:italic>z<\/jats:italic>\n                      = \u22120.61,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 54). Whereas a significant difference was found in eating disorder (\n                      <jats:italic>z<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 2.91,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.004), with female showing higher prevalence (88%) compare to male (76%). Sub-scales revealed significant within-group differences for all variables.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study revealed insignificant gender differences for smartphone addiction, body image, and physical activity levels except eating disorders. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and objective measures to clarify causal pathways and gender-specific mechanisms for all related variables.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1823725","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T05:35:40Z","timestamp":1790919340000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Gender-specific differences in smartphone addiction, body image, eating disorders, and physical activity: a cross-sectional investigation"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Bijad S.","family":"Alqahtani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Sciences at Shaqra, Shaqra University","place":["Shaqra, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Khalid M.","family":"Alkhathami","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Sciences at Shaqra, Shaqra University","place":["Shaqra, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shajiya Sarwar","family":"Moosa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University","place":["Dammam, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"Ahsan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University","place":["Dammam, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"486","DOI":"10.1007\/s40429-022-00435-6","article-title":"Estimation of behavioral addiction prevalence during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.","volume":"9","author":"Alimoradi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Curr. 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