The effect of media use on the tendency to use cosmetics in women: a structural model concerning the mediation of psychological variables

The prevalence of cosmetics from the beginning of their production in women is much higher than men, and the content produced in the media usually teaches women to meet the socially constructed standards of beauty. Today, the excessive use of cosmetics among Iranian women and girls has become a critical psychosocial issue. Therefore, the present study aimed to test the media use model to use cosmetics concerning the mediating role of internalization of media patterns, beliefs about appearance, and body image concerns. For this purpose, 324 female students of the University of Isfahan were selected as the research sample using cluster sampling method and responded to the Media Consumption (Revised) and Beliefs about Appearance Scales, Body Image Concerns Inventory, and Socio-Cultural Attitudes to Appearance (Third Edition) and Compensatory Tendencies and Behaviors for Beauty and Fitness Questionnaires. The research model tested using structural equation modeling analysis, and the significance of the model effects evaluated using the bootstrap method. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. Testing the model showed that the size of the fit indices for the model is desirable and this model has a good fit with the experimental data. Also, bootstrap results showed that all model effects are significant. In general, the results of the present study support the importance of the role of internalizing media patterns and body image concern in the tendency of Iranian women to use cosmetics. These results explained in the research and theoretical context, and suggestions made in this regard.