Investigating the mediating role of moral values and intellectual capital in the relationship between the amount of social network use and the individual's attitude towards her body image in physical education students

The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent of social media use with the individual's attitude towards her body image in physical education students of Tehran University of Science and Research, taking into account the mediating role of moral values and intellectual capital. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation type based on structural equations and the statistical population included physical education students of Tehran University of Science and Research in the undergraduate and graduate levels in the number of 340 people. The sample size was determined according to the structural equation modeling approach, the number of 5 to 10 subjects for each question and the condition of at least 100 subjects (Gursuch's proposal) and finally 181 people, and stratified random sampling was done. The measurement tool was a standardized questionnaire with 22 questions and acceptable reliability. For data analysis, structural equation modeling was used by partial least squares method with the help of SPSS26 and PLS Smart 3.0 statistical software.The results showed that moral values and intellectual capital have a mediating role in the relationship between the amount of social network use and the attitude towards body image. Therefore, physical education students of Tehran University of Science and Research can, by implementing programs related to the principled and appropriate use of social networks, their current and future personal growth and development and the formation of a constructive and effective attitude towards their body image and respect for moral values and preservation These values should be used to achieve a desirable level of individual and social performance.