Instagram use patterns and disordered eating among young Korean women: A latent profile analysis

Disordered eating among young women has become a significant public health concern. Although social media use has been shown to be associated with disordered eating through appearance-related sociocultural attitudes, this effect varies by usage patterns and content consumed. Because these engagement patterns co-occur within individuals, the present study employed a person-centered approach to explore how distinct profiles of appearance-related Instagram activities relate to disordered eating and examined the mediating role of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance. A total of 325 Korean women aged 19-26 completed measures of Instagram appearance-related activities, sociocultural attitudes toward appearance (SATAQ-4R), and disordered eating (EAT-26). Latent profile analysis identified four profiles: high-engagement content creators (20.6%), low-engagement passive users (19.1%), heavy-time users (10.5%), and moderate users (49.8%). Profile membership was significantly associated with clinical eating disorder risk (χ²(3) = 23.21, p < .001). Of high-engagement content creators, 32.8% met the clinical cutoff for disordered eating, representing five times higher odds compared to heavy-time users who spent substantially more time on the platform (OR = 5.05, p = .014). Sociocultural attitudes partially mediated the relationship between high-engagement content creator membership and disordered eating (20.4% of total effect), while a significant negative indirect effect for low-engagement passive users suggested that lower sociocultural attitude endorsement among this group accounted for lower disordered eating symptoms. These findings indicate that the type of Instagram engagement is more closely associated with disordered eating risk than the amount of time spent, with active creation of appearance-related content and feedback-monitoring behaviors identified as key risk factors.