Background
Adolescent dependency on smartphones is the highest among all age groups. Adolescents can be influenced to evaluate their body image by popular ideals about beautiful bodies via smartphone content, which can cause body image distortion. This study aimed to examine the association between body image distortion and smartphone dependency and the duration of smartphone usage among Korean adolescents.
Methods
This study used data from the 16th Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey (2020), and included 42,981 participants, who were grouped according to self-reported duration of smartphone usage and smartphone dependency, as measured by a questionnaire. Body image distortion is defined as an exaggerated subjective body image compared to the actual body image. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to determine the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of body image distortion on smartphone dependency and usage time after adjusting for various factors related to body image distortion.
Results
Among the 42,981 participants, both moderate and high levels of smartphone dependency were associated with body image distortion in boys (moderate: adjusted OR [aOR], 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01–1.22; high: aOR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05–1.32) and girls (moderate: aOR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05–1.23; high: aOR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.18–1.42) compared to the low-level dependency group. However, no significant association was found between smartphone usage duration and body image distortion.
Conclusion
Our study demonstrated that moderate to high levels of smartphone dependency are associated with body image distortion in adolescents. Therefore, it is necessary to establish strategies for checking and managing adolescents’ smartphone dependence.

Citations

• Excessive smartphone use, smartphone dependency and body image distortion in Korean adolescents
  Young Gyu Cho
  Korean Journal of Family Medicine.2025; 46(2): 58.     CrossRef
• Social Media Use and Body Image Dissatisfaction Among University Students of Health Sciences in Saudi Arabia
  Ihdaa J Abdulwahab, Jumana H Khouja, Noha A Alzahrani, Amina Bargawi
  Cureus.2024;[Epub]     CrossRef