{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T06:46:57Z","timestamp":1790664417995,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,21]],"date-time":"2022-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1650499200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The use of social networking sites for socializing, having fun, solving academic tasks or even getting counselling for health-related problems is now inevitable. Methods: A total of 427 medical students, who are users of social media sites, were included in the research. Data about socio-demographic, anthropometric, and self-rated items regarding satisfaction with physical and mental health were collected. Three psychological tools were also used to measure self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), body-esteem (Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults) and loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale). Collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Results: Students use these networks for socialization (49.0%), entertainment (31.1%) and academic tasks (19.9%), spending 3.38 \u00b1 0.80 h per day on SNSs. Less than half of them (47.5%) compared themselves to other SNS profiles. The use of Snapchat was found to be strongly positively correlated with self-esteem, and weight status was negatively correlated with the use of TikTok. More than three-quarters declared that they exercised to lose weight or to prevent weight gain. Participants were found to have a high level of body esteem. Almost half of the students proved to have a moderate to a high level of loneliness. Age and gender were found to be important: the younger the user, the higher the scores for loneliness and feeling depressed, and the greater the number of hours on SNSs. The total score for self-esteem was significantly higher in men than in women, and male students appreciated themselves as being in a better state of mental health than women. Conclusions: The results prove a relationship between the use of SNSs and the presence of loneliness, self-esteem and body-esteem, with gender differences. However, the use of SNSs should not be neglected in clinical settings, and are a good means of reaching patients and providing medical and psychological intervention.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph19095064","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,22]],"date-time":"2022-04-22T05:07:22Z","timestamp":1650604042000},"page":"5064","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":80,"title":["Body-Esteem, Self-Esteem and Loneliness among Social Media Young Users"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7847-1289","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lavinia Maria","family":"Pop","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, \u201cAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u201d University of Iasi, 700554 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7074-959X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Magdalena","family":"Iorga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, \u201cAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u201d University of Iasi, 700554 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Behavioral Sciences Department, \u201cGrigore T. Popa\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 700115 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2953-3842","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raluca","family":"Iurcov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dentistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oradea, 410073 Oradea, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2022, February 10). Social Networking Fact Sheets-Pew Research Center. Available online: http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/fact-sheets\/social-networking-fact-sheet\/."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8721.2009.01595.x","article-title":"Social consequences of the Internet for adolescents","volume":"18","author":"Valkenberg","year":"2009","journal-title":"Curr. Dir. Psychol. 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