Body dysmorphic disorder and its negative impact on social and mental well-being among Jordanian university students

Purpose This study aims to investigate how body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) impacts social and mental well-being and its dimensions among Jordanian university students. Design/methodology/approach The current study used a cross-sectional design and a convenience sample approach to collect data from public and private Jordanian university students. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and SmartPLS-4 software was used for computational purposes. Findings This study’s results show a strong negative relationship between BDD and mental well-being, meaning higher BDD reduces mental well-being. Also, BDD has a moderate negative impact on social well-being, meaning that people with higher levels of BDD tend to report lower levels of social satisfaction and communication. Moreover, BDD negatively affects all dimensions of mental and social well-being. However, emotional well-being has the strongest negative relationship with BDD. Originality/value Our study revealed that BDD harms Jordanian university students’ social and mental well-being and its dimensions (family and close friends, supervisory and authoritative positions, emotional well-being and cognitive well-being), with primarily negative impacts on emotional well-being. Also, this study demonstrates the requirement for selected interventions to minimize BDD’s adverse mental and social well-being effects using specific strategies.