Exposure to fitness role models on social media and social physique anxiety among college students: the sequential mediating roles of upward body comparison and body self-discrepancy.

INTRODUCTION: Fitness role models on social media combine exercise- and health-oriented communication with highly visible body ideals. This study examined associations among exposure to fitness role models, upward body comparison, body self-discrepancy, and social physique anxiety among college students, including separate and theoretically ordered indirect associations.

METHODS: The study comprised a preliminary measurement phase and a formal cross-sectional survey. A pilot study with 162 valid responses examined item performance, internal consistency, and dimensional structure. The formal survey retained 528 valid responses from college students in Yunnan Province, China. Exposure to fitness role models was modeled as a higher-order construct comprising passive browsing and active participation. Confirmatory factor analysis evaluated the measurement model, and a latent-variable structural equation model with covariate paths to social physique anxiety tested the hypothesized associations. Standardized direct and indirect associations were estimated using 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Two unadjusted PROCESS Model 6 sensitivity analyses used observed scores, including an alternative dimension-level discrepancy × importance product score for body self-discrepancy.

RESULTS: Exposure to fitness role models was positively associated with upward body comparison (β = 0.622), body self-discrepancy (β = 0.332), and social physique anxiety (β = 0.263). Upward body comparison was positively associated with body self-discrepancy (β = 0.314) and social physique anxiety (β = 0.131), and body self-discrepancy was positively associated with social physique anxiety (β = 0.285). Bootstrap confidence intervals excluded zero for the standardized indirect associations through upward body comparison (effect = 0.081, 95% CI [0.006, 0.145]), body self-discrepancy (effect = 0.095, 95% CI [0.027, 0.194]), and their theoretically ordered combination (effect = 0.056, 95% CI [0.014, 0.111]). The standardized direct association also remained statistically different from zero (effect = 0.263, 95% CI [0.114, 0.349]). Supplementary observed-score analyses produced broadly similar positive indirect-association patterns.

DISCUSSION: Greater exposure to fitness role models was concurrently associated with stronger upward body comparison, greater body self-discrepancy, and higher social physique anxiety. These findings support integrating externally referenced social comparison and internally referenced body self-discrepancy. Because the study was cross-sectional and self-reported, causal direction and temporal ordering cannot be established.