Dental self-confidence in digital health marketing systems: Adolescent well-being and social media use

Abstract

Health marketing research has paid limited attention to how everyday digital platforms function as informal health marketing systems that shape adolescents’ perceptions of appearance, self-worth, and treatment value. Positioning social media platforms as marketplace-mediated environments that produce health-related norms and consumer vulnerability, this study examines dental self-confidence (DSC) as a form of health-related market value among adolescents. Using data from 502 parent-child dyads in New Zealand and applying multivariate analysis and PLS-SEM, the findings show that lower dental self-confidence is associated with greater social and psychological impact (PI), with social impact operating as a key pathway. Active social media use was associated with a weaker protective DSC-PI association. This study extends health marketing theory by (a) conceptualizing dental appearance as a form of health-related market value, (b) positioning everyday digital platforms as informal health marketing systems, and (c) extending consumer vulnerability frameworks to adolescent health consumers navigating marketing-mediated appearance norms.