JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Within digital media environments, female university students are increasingly exposed to reinforced appearance norms and intensified social comparison pressures. Such exposure may contribute to sociocultural internalization of body ideals; however, internalization processes are unlikely to operate uniformly across individuals. Instead, they may exhibit structurally stratified patterns shaped by differing configurations of sociocultural risk and psychological resources.

Objective:

This study aimed to identify latent structural profiles of sociocultural internalization and psychological resources among female university students and to examine between-profile differences in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), body size perception, and screen-based sedentary behavior. Specifically, the study sought to clarify how distinct sociocultural exposure–psychological resource configurations are associated with health-related behavioral outcomes within digitalized contexts.

Methods:

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 2,034 female university students. Measures included Sociocultural Internalization (Internalization–General, Information, and Pressures), Body Appreciation (Body Appreciation Scale-2, BAS-2), weight control self-efficacy, MVPA (minutes/week), body size perception (Underweight, Normal weight, Overweight, Obese), and screen-based sedentary time (≤7, 8–14, 15–28, 29–49, ≥50 hours/week). Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was employed to identify psychological subtypes. Distal outcomes were compared using the three-step approach (BCH method for continuous variables; DCAT method for categorical variables) to minimize bias attributable to classification uncertainty.

Results:

A four-profile solution demonstrated the best model fit (Entropy = 0.874). Four distinct psychological profiles were identified: Low-Risk–High-Protection (6.74%), Moderate-Balanced (53.15%), Low Sociocultural Exposure (22.22%), and High Internalization–High Pressure (17.90%). Significant between-profile differences were observed in MVPA (Wald χ²(3) = 15.266, p = 0.002). Specifically, the High Internalization–High Pressure and Moderate-Balanced profiles reported significantly higher MVPA than the Low-Risk–High-Protection and Low Sociocultural Exposure profiles. The distribution of body size perception also differed significantly across profiles (χ²(9) = 20.428, p = 0.015), with the High Internalization–High Pressure profile showing a relatively higher likelihood of perceiving themselves as “Overweight.” No significant between-profile differences were found for screen-based sedentary time (χ²(12) = 16.661, p = 0.163), suggesting that overall screen duration per se may have limited discriminative value across profiles; its influence may depend more strongly on media content characteristics and appearance-related exposure structures.

Conclusions:

Sociocultural internalization among female university students demonstrates clear structural stratification. Although the High Internalization–High Pressure group reported higher levels of physical activity participation, this pattern may reflect functional differences in the role of physical activity across psychological configurations. Whether such activity is driven by appearance-oriented or controlled motivation requires further investigation incorporating indicators such as motivational regulation and compulsive exercise tendencies. Accordingly, in digital media contexts, understanding women’s physical activity behaviors necessitates simultaneous consideration of sociocultural exposure structures and psychological resource configurations, rather than equating higher MVPA with health empowerment or superior psychological adaptation.