research on social media and body image

Examining the Relationship Between Social Media and Body Image A Review of Literature.

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Recent developments in social media have prompted researchers to investigate the potential effects its use could have on body image. The study of body image in the media is not new, but with the rapid expansion of social media use, this issue has taken on increased importance, specifically because researchers have noted that social media is a central socializing agent for adolescents in sociocultural settings (Bell et al., 2021; Colak et al., 2023; Jarman et al., 2021; Mahon & Hevey, 2021). Along with this influence, social media is, for many adolescents, their source of news, opinion, and general information (Jarman et al., 2021, p. 2279). Various works have established both positive and negative relationships between social media use and body image, which indicates the growing need to pinpoint what aspects of social media serve as a significant factor for potentially negative relationships (Akerman & Borsa, 2021; Bell et al., 2021; Colak et al., 2023; Jarman et al., 2021; Mahon & Hevey, 2021). Without understanding what aspects of social media may cause adolescents to have negative body image, researchers cannot implement preventative tactics to try and limit adverse effects on adolescents’ psychological and physical well-being.

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Akerman, L. P., & Borsa, J. C. (2022). Does accessed content matter? Social Media and body (dis)satisfaction: A moderation analysis. Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto), 32. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4327e3229

Bell, B. T., Taylor, C., Paddock, D., & Bates, A. (2021). Digital Bodies: A controlled evaluation of a brief classroom‐based intervention for reducing negative body image among adolescents in the Digital age. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 280–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12449

Colak, M., Bingol, O. S., & Dayi, A. (2023). Self-esteem and social media addiction level in adolescents: The mediating role of Body Image. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 65(5), 595–600. https://doi.org/10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_306_22

Jarman, H. K., Marques, M. D., McLean, S. A., Slater, A., & Paxton, S. J. (2021). Motivations for social media use: Associations with social media engagement and body satisfaction and well-being among adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(12), 2279–2293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01390-z

Mahon, C., & Hevey, D. (2021). Processing body image on social media: Gender differences in adolescent boys’ and girls’ agency and active coping. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626763

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• Published: 28 March 2024

A diary study investigating the differential impacts of Instagram content on youths’ body image

• Hannah C. Glaser   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-5353-3095 1 ,
• Sikke R. Jansma 1 &
• Hanneke Scholten   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5471-6093 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  458 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Cultural and media studies

Through social media like Instagram, users are constantly exposed to “perfect” lives and thin-ideal bodies. Research in this field has predominantly focused on the time youth spend on Instagram and the effects on their body image, oftentimes uncovering negative effects. Little research has been done on the root of the influence: the consumed content itself. Hence, this study aims to qualitatively uncover the types of content that trigger youths’ body image. Using a diary study, 28 youth ( M age  = 21.86; 79% female) reported 140 influential body image Instagram posts over five days, uncovering trigger points and providing their motivations, emotions, and impacts on body image. Based on these posts, four content categories were distinguished: Thin Ideal, Body Positivity, Fitness, and Lifestyle. These different content types seemed to trigger different emotions regarding body image, and gender distinctions in content could be noticed. The study increased youths’ awareness of Instagram’s influence on their mood and body perception. The findings imply that the discussion about the effects of social media on body image should be nuanced, taking into account different types of content and users. Using this information, future interventions could focus on the conscious use of social media rather than merely limiting its use.

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Introduction.

In the present age, social media is a day-to-day companion for many. Checking social media posts at the beginning and end of each day is an integral part of daily routines among our society, especially among youth. Close to all youth (we refer to adolescents and young adults between 18 and 25 years of age with the term ‘youth’, following convincing arguments of an extended period of adolescence; Arnett et al., 2014 ; Sawyer et al., 2018 ) have a smartphone and thereby the possibility to access social media platforms (Vogels et al., 2022 ). As young people are oftentimes in almost daily contact with social media, they are not simply platforms where people share highlights of their lives, but they are also outlets for identity creation (Pouwels et al., 2021 ). The content shown on these social media are powerful transmitters of societal standards, beliefs, and values, which lead to certain societal ideals. These ideals, including weight, beauty, fashion, gender, food, and fitness, have an impact on one’s body image (Burnette et al., 2017 ). Body image is referred to as “the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say, the way in which the body appears to ourselves” (Schilder, 1950 , p. 11). It is about how someone treats, feels toward, and thinks about their body (Tylka, 2011 ).

On social media platforms, individuals can be exposed to a variety of content, including images of individuals and bodies that are nearly “perfect” (Perloff, 2014 ). It has been found that the internalization of these “perfect” thin body ideals leads back to the pressure of cultural and social forces, including the urge to fulfill socially defined ideals of beauty and physical appearance and the desire to fit in (Perloff, 2014 ). The constant exposure to these “perfect” images might affect how young people view themselves and their bodies (e.g., Franchina and Lo Coco, 2018 ; Yang et al., 2020 ). Statistics show that around 20–40% of young adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Ben Ayed et al., 2019 ; Bucchianeri et al., 2013 ; Kearney‐Cooke and Tieger, 2015 ; McLean et al., 2022 ; Ricciardelli and McCabe, 2001 ). Additionally, it seems that the percentage of body image dissatisfaction increases throughout late adolescence and young adulthood (Bucchianeri et al., 2013 ; Kearney‐Cooke and Tieger, 2015 ; Quick et al., 2013 ). Body image concerns are not only observed among girls, as research showed that 20–30% of adolescent boys feel upset with their bodies (McLean et al., 2022 ; Schuck et al., 2018 ; Quick et al., 2013 ).

Previous scholars have assessed the influence of social media on body image, often in a quantitative way (e.g., Ahadzadeh et al., 2017 ; Brewster et al., 2019 ; Sebre and Miltuze, 2021 ). These studies have shown that a longer duration of social media use is related to a more negative body image, which is oftentimes connected to a higher rate of social comparison as well (Abi-Jaoude et al., 2020 ; Fardouly et al., 2015 ; Perloff, 2014 ; Richards et al., 2015 ). To better understand the relationship between social media use, social comparison, and body image, additional correlational and experimental work has been conducted. For example, Di Gesto and colleagues ( 2022 ) have shown that exposure to likes on Instagram images increases body dissatisfaction, especially among women. Another study indicated that exposure to attractive celebrity and peer images can have detrimental effects on women’s body image (Brown and Tiggemann, 2016 ). Moreover, following appearance-focused accounts on Instagram (Cohen et al., 2017 ) and engaging in appearance comparison with fitspiration images (Rafati et al., 2021 ) were related to higher body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, body surveillance, and drive for thinness.

However, it is important to highlight that correlational and experimental studies often focus on the impact of a one-time exposure to Instagram pictures, which may not fully capture the nuances of individuals’ everyday and moment-to-moment experiences (Slater et al., 2017 ). Little work has been done to comprehend the connection between the exact content youth are exposed to on social media and their body image. Therefore, this study seeks to uncover characteristics of social media content that trigger body image qualitatively and across multiple time points across weekdays. More specifically, this study will focus on the Instagram posts youth identify to trigger their body image in relation to social comparison and positive or negative emotions.

Adolescence and young adulthood

Adolescence and young adulthood are a crucial time for developing one’s identity, the perspective of oneself, and health-related attitudes and behaviors (Arnett, 2007 ; Carrotte et al., 2015 ; Crone and Dahl, 2012 ). Identity development is a “process located in the core of an individual and yet also in the core of their social context” (Erikson, 1968 , p. 22). In other words, young people are sculpting their identity based on internal processes, yet are also influenced by their context, including social media. In the present era, young people live in a hybrid reality that intricately connects digital and offline realms, making it increasingly difficult to disentangle ‘digital life’ from the contexts in which today’s youth navigate key developmental tasks (Davis and Weinstein, 2017 ; Granic et al., 2020 ). This not only challenges them to define themselves in their immediate offline environment but also to understand and form their identity, including these digital spaces. Social media platforms like Instagram offer vast opportunities for information access, exploration, and collaboration, supporting self-presentation and overall identity development (Sebre and Miltuze, 2021 ).

Body image can be defined as an integral part of our identity (Dittmar, 2009 ), given that it constitutes the subjective concept a person holds of their body as part of their self-representation (Dittmar, 2009 ; Halliwell and Dittmar, 2006 ). The representation of ourselves and of others (both in real life and on social media) can become risk factors for dysfunctional body image perceptions, especially during adolescence (Pellerone et al., 2017 ). For example, exposure to societal beauty standards on social media platforms can create significant gaps between their idealized identity presentation and their current self-beliefs. Feedback in the form of “likes” and “followers” from peers further influences their identity and self-esteem (Sebre and Miltuze, 2021 ). At this moment in time, identity development—and specifically the role of body image—in the digital age has not been researched in its full complexity (Dittmar, 2009 ; Granic et al., 2020 ).

Presenting ‘the self’ on social media

Spending time on social media means being exposed to the content of other users. A differentiation can be made between individuals presenting authentic aspects—their real selves— aspects they desire or wish to have—their ideal selves—or aspects that are not truthful—their false selves (Michikyan et al., 2014 ). One of the biggest criticisms towards current social media platforms is that they are designed to amplify performative aspects of personal storytelling and thereby cut back the opportunity for deeper interactions (e.g., Nesi et al., 2018 ). These performative aspects of social media might lead users to selectively choose to post idealized images of themselves (Manago et al., 2008 ), which might not represent their true and authentic selves and distort their sense of who they truly are (Ahadzadeh et al., 2017 ). Moreover, the use of digital manipulation (e.g., using Photoshop) heightens the exposure to content that lacks realism which in turn can lead to body dissatisfaction, eating concerns, and even cosmetic procedure attitudes or intentions (Beos et al., 2021 ; Lonergan et al., 2019 ; Wick and Keel, 2020 ). The presence of idealized images of people’s lives does not only impact the ‘poster’ of these images but can also influence other users encountering them, both passively (i.e., simply through scrolling, viewing, and monitoring of profiles) and actively (i.e., through liking, commenting, and posting; Bodroža et al., 2022 ; Thorisdottir et al., 2019 ; Verduyn et al., 2017 ).

Researchers exploring the varied effects of social media exposure on gender have observed notable gender differences. Casale and colleagues ( 2019 ) observed distinctions in the impact of exposure to same-sex attractive Instagram images on body image and dissatisfaction, with women experiencing increased dissatisfaction while men showed no significant effect. Moreover, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement on Instagram and are particularly more likely to engage in appearance-related comparisons than men, given their increased time spent on Instagram (Legkauskas and Kudlaitė, 2022 ; Twenge and Martin, 2020 ). An explanation for digital media having a more significant impact on the body image of females is deemed to be the tendency to self-objectify rooted in women’s nature (Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997 ). The idea of objectification offers a framework for comprehending the consequences of being a woman in a culture that sexualizes the bodies of women. This theory holds that objectification occurs when a woman’s body is valued separately from their identity. In turn, girls and women may internalize an external perspective on their physical appearance due to experiences of objectification (Feltman and Szymanski, 2017 ), contributing to gender differences in the effects of social media exposure.

Social comparison

A reasonable explanation of why social media has an impact on someone’s body image is the concept of social comparison. Foregoing research suggests that appearance-based social comparison is triggered by social media usage (Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ). Psychologists have detected two primary motives for social comparison: self-evaluation and self-enhancement (Lewallen and Behm-Morawitz, 2016 ). Self-evaluation refers to maintaining a positive self-evaluation by comparing oneself to someone seen as inferior, which is done through downward comparison. On the other hand, self-enhancement is done to compare oneself to superior individuals for successful improvement, which is achieved by upward comparison (Lewallen and Behm-Morawitz, 2016 ). Overall, youth evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with the socio-cultural ideas presented in the media (Festinger, 1954 ). Fundamentally, this implies that comparing and exploring similar or dissimilar others helps them verify or deny aspects of their own identity, which they see as diagnostic and functional (Wood and Taylor, 1991 ).

Through social comparison, social media content can also have an impact on youths’ body image. Previous research has shown that social comparison on social media, especially in connection with thin-ideal imagery, is connected to overall increased body dissatisfaction (Aparicio-Martínez et al., 2019 ; Duan et al., 2022 ; Kleemans et al., 2016 ; Ralph‐Nearman and Filik, 2020 ). Additional research implies that especially passive social media usage is connected to greater depression symptoms, lower body image, and decreased well-being (Valkenburg et al., 2021 ; Verduyn et al., 2017 ). Studies have even found that the negative effects of social media on body image are a component that—in combination with other components—can lead to the development of eating pathologies (Abi-Jaoude et al., 2020 ; Brewster et al., 2019 ; Perloff, 2014 ; Richards et al., 2015 ; Stice and Shaw, 2002 ).

Thompson et al. ( 1999 ) created the tripartite influence model (TIM), a comprehensive framework to elucidate the origins and repercussions of thin idealization, particularly focusing on its antecedents and outcomes. According to the TIM, societal pressures promoting the idealization of thinness arise from three primary sources: family, peers, and the media. These external influences prompt individuals—mainly women—to engage in social comparison, wherein they assess their own bodies in relation to others, fostering a propensity to internalize the thin ideal as a standard of beauty (Donovan et al., 2020 ). As per the model, two primary mechanisms, the processes of appearance (social) comparison and thin-ideal internalization, contribute to a sense of dissatisfaction with one’s body (Keery et al., 2004 ). Consequently, this dissatisfaction is determined as the driving force of women pushing them to adopt unhealthy eating behaviors as they strive to achieve the perceived ideal of a thin body.

The potentially harmful effects of social media content on body image have not only been a topic of interest for researchers but have also been recognized by various groups of people in society. These people have chosen to act against these performative uses of social media by contributing towards a more positive attitude towards their body, embracing who they are, and stimulating body satisfaction. An example of this is the body positivity movement, which promotes body appreciation and diverse looks, shapes, sizes, and colors (Manning and Mulgrew, 2022 ). According to Tylka and Wood-Barcalow ( 2015 ), the body positivity concept is made up of six core elements. Namely, appreciation of the body’s uniqueness and functions, accepting one’s own body and loving it, and, in general, shifting from a narrowly defined concept of beauty to a broad one, investing in body care, inner positivity, and protecting oneself by forgetting negative body ideals. Body positivity posts on Instagram include enhancement-free pictures in which you can see body blemishes, cellulite, freckles, and stretch marks (Cohen et al., 2019 ). Research has shown that exposure to body-positive images improved the participants’ body satisfaction, body appreciation, and overall mood (Cohen et al., 2019 ; Williamson and Karazsia, 2018 ). These studies show that body-positivity content may offer a prosperous way to improve body image influences through social media.

Current study

Most studies have focused on the influence of social media use on body image, for instance, in relation to the duration of use or characteristics of the user, either in a correlational or experimental way (e.g., Ahadzadeh et al., 2017 ; Brewster et al., 2019 ; Brown and Tiggemann, 2016 ; Cohen et al., 2017 ; Di Gesto et al., 2022 ; Rafati et al., 2021 ; Sebre and Miltuze, 2021 ). The added value and novelty of the current study is that we provide a nuanced description of the type of Instagram content that triggers body image in relation to social comparison and positive or negative emotions. By means of a qualitative diary study we examine what type of content triggers youths’ body image, considering the nature of the content and how youth compare themselves with it. The chosen innovative methodology of a diary study provides day-to-day access to participants’ thoughts and emotions regarding the Instagram content they are exposed to. This approach enables an in-depth exploration of participants’ engagements and feelings at multiple time points in their natural environment (Carter and Mankoff, 2005 ; Chun, 2016 ; Gunthert and Wenze, 2012 ). We mainly focused on Instagram as it is currently one of the most popular social media platforms (Lister, 2022 ), and it primarily uses visually oriented content (Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ).

Methodology

Participants.

Our target sample size was 30 participants, as previous research has found that in more standard qualitative research (i.e., interviews), saturation was reached around 30 participants (Marshall et al., 2013 ). To be eligible for participation, participants had to be (1) frequent Instagram users (utilize the platform daily by logging in at least once a day); (2) between the ages of 18 and 25; and (3) able to read and write in English. In total, 33 participants were included in this study, of which 28 matched the inclusion criteria and completed at least 90% of the diary survey. Of the 28 participants, 6 (21%) identified as male and 22 (79%) as female. The mean age of all participants was 22 years ( M  = 21.86; SD = 1.33; range = 18–24). The sample consisted mainly of German participants ( n  = 19; 68%), a small group of Dutch participants ( n  = 5; 18%), and one participant from Spain (3.5%), Italy (3.5%), Bulgaria (3.5%), and India (3.5%) respectively. All participants were full-time students enrolled at a university.

Concerning participants’ Instagram usage, the vast majority ( n  = 13; 46.4%) used Instagram for 1–2 h a day. The three most given reasons that participants reported using Instagram were (1) to keep up with their friends ( n  = 27; 98%); (2) boredom ( n  = 15; 54%); and 3) to present themselves ( n  = 12; 44%). When asked which activities participants mostly performed on Instagram, all participants reported being active Instagram users, as 96% ( n  = 27) reported liking other Instagram posts regularly, 93% ( n  = 26) reported sending posts to their friends and engaging with them, 75% ( n  = 21) reported to save posts, and 64% ( n  = 18) reported that they commented on other posts frequently.

In this study, we were mainly interested in how different Instagram content triggers body image and accompanying social comparison and positive or negative emotions in young people. We therefore chose to conduct a qualitative diary study in which we asked multiple open-ended questions at the end of the day. We made a conscious decision to only measure for five weekdays (no weekend days) and once a day, as we used open-ended questions that took quite a long time for participants to answer each day (between 10 and 20 min per day). We wanted to balance our need to collect day-to-day rich data around how different Instagram content triggers young peoples’ body image with participant study burden and preventing high attrition rates (Janssens et al., 2018 ). The study design and procedures were approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences of the University of Twente (approval number: 220799).

Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. To specifically target individuals who met the predetermined condition of being frequent Instagram users, recruitment efforts were conducted directly on Instagram. When individuals expressed interest in participation, comprehensive information about the study design and procedure was provided, and they had the opportunity to seek clarification and ask questions. Upon confirming their interest and understanding of the study, participants then proceeded to sign informed consent and initiated the 5-day diary study. In order to ensure smooth data collection, participants received a detailed WhatsApp message regarding the study and its procedure one day before data collection started. To further prevent possible misinterpretation, a detailed instruction form (see Supplementary Materials S1 ) was attached to that message. Before the start of the diary study, each participant received a private WhatsApp message at 10 a.m., which contained a link to a baseline questionnaire and their personal participation ID to pseudo-anonymize data once all data was collected. At 6 p.m., every participant received another message reminding them to fill in the baseline questionnaire. This baseline questionnaire was used to gain a better understanding of the study sample and its demographics, such as motivation for Instagram usage. The day after the diary study started. Again, participants received the diary study link and their participation ID at 10 a.m. via WhatsApp, followed by a reminder message at 6 p.m.

Instruments

In the diary study, participants were asked to identify one post each day that influenced, triggered, or stimulated them to think about their body image. We specifically prompted them to “Identify and screenshot one post which you came across on Instagram which made you think about your body image. This can be in a positive, neutral or negative way”. After determining that post and uploading its screenshot, a series of open-ended questions were posed. These questions concerned the exact reason for choosing that post, how participants came across this post, which activities they performed with it (e.g., liked, commented, shared), if they were related or knew the creator of the post, if they felt connected with the creator, and if the participants felt more, less, or equally attractive after seeing the post. Additionally, questions regarding the posts’ effects on participants’ body image were posed. We specifically asked participants to report how the post affected their body image (positively, neutral, or negatively), how big that impact was (on a scale from 1 = no impact to 10 = high impact), and how they felt after being exposed to the post and their thoughts throughout the process of seeing it (open question). In the last diary questionnaire on day 5, participants received some additional questions that asked them to evaluate their participation in this study and how that might have impacted their view on Instagram content and their body image. This inclusion of evaluative questions aimed to gain insights into the influence of the diary study on participants’ perceptions. Please note that our initial goal was to observe how participants experienced the diary study, but we unexpectedly found interesting additional insights that we, therefore, reported in the results section.

Data analysis

To ensure anonymity, all collected data was pseudo-anonymized (i.e., reported personal information was deleted). Furthermore, the data was transferred to an Excel Sheet and structured in an easily accessible way. The meaning, relevance, and value of responses were made clear by creating unique Excel sheets for each of the 28 participants based on all of their diary study responses. The data was analyzed by means of thematic analysis (Boeije, 2009 ). In the first round, we conducted a constant comparison method based on open coding by clustering and grouping images together. In the second round, themes were identified from the image clusters, which led to four labels: Thin Ideal, Body Positivity, Fitness, and Lifestyle, to which all selected content could be selected. Additionally, other characteristics in the picture, such as the number of persons, how the person was positioned in the picture, and the pictures showing naked or covered skin, were analyzed. Furthermore, the images were coded for other characteristics, such as the sender of the post and how the participants came across the post.

Then, participants’ underlying motives for selecting the content were analyzed by looking at their comments in which they explained why they selected the content. Five different motives could be distinguished, including feeling inspired, having a desire to look like that, being motivated to change one’s own body, feeling jealous, and feeling good about oneself. Additionally, we analyzed how the content triggered the body image among the participants. This was done by analyzing the type of comparison, i.e., upward or downward comparison, the emotions, and the general impact on body image that was triggered by the content. Finally, we connected participants’ demographic information to the coded content.

Based on these steps, a codebook was developed and used, existing of nine main codes, including: “Instagram post characteristics”, “Source/Sender”, “Content category”, “Instagram post selection motive”, “Instagram post trace”, “Body image impact”, “Triggered emotion”, “Social comparison”, and “Study impact”. The complete codebook can be found in Supplementary Materials S2 .

Over the course of 5 diary study days, a total of 140 Instagram post screenshots of 28 participants were collected. Based on these posts, four categories were distinguished, namely: Thin Ideal, Body Positivity, Fitness, and Lifestyle. Overall, it was noticeable that most of the participants showed a clear pattern of chosen content and oftentimes, a dominance of one specific category. Even though present dominance of one category, most participants also reported content belonging to other established categories. The specific reporting patterns of every participant, as well as demographic information and their average daily Instagram consumption time, can be found in Supplementary Materials S3 . The majority of the selected content existed of posts created by people the participants did not know in person: most content was created by strangers, followed by celebrities, influencers, one’s social circle, brands, relatives, and other accounts (e.g., news pages and memes pages). Participants indicated that they came across the content by either following the creator, through Instagram’s suggestion and, to a lesser extent, through Instagram’s advertisements (see Table 1 ).

Content categories

The type of content that forms the largest group is the Thin Ideal category and was purely selected by female participants ( n  = 53 Instagram posts; 21 participants). Thin ideal content includes pictures of individuals who fit in the socially created thin ideal. All selected Instagram posts displayed women who showed a lot of skin. Hereby, most of them wore bikinis, underwear, skin-tight dresses, athleisure, and see-through clothing. The Instagram posts were set in a scene with a focus on the creator’s body. The Thin Ideal content category contained a mixture of mirror pictures, close-ups of specific body parts, or full-body shots taken by other people. Figure 1 showcases such a thin ideal Instagram post showing a woman in a bikini. The participant (no. 10) explained her choice by stating: “This picture shows an overly perfect body type ideal.”

Luisaviictoria, Instagram post, 2022.

The motives for participants to select thin ideal content were that they either admired this body type, thereby expressing the wish to have such a body themselves or despised the body type and emphasized they were happy with their own body. Hereby, participants both engaged in upward and downward comparisons. Upward comparison mostly triggered negative emotions, creating a feeling of unhappiness, stress, or sadness. Different than the Fitness category below, this type of comparison did not lead to a motivation to become just like the person in the picture. For instance, one participant (no. 6) reported an Instagram picture of a thin ideal corresponding female wearing a tight long sleeve and a short skirt revealing her legs. She voiced the feeling that was triggered by the content: “I am a bit stressed, and also annoyed by all the perfectionism on Instagram. It makes me feel less pretty as I am not that “perfect” as the woman in the picture”. Other examples of such were addressed by Participant 4, who explained: “Imagine how nice life could be when you are that skinny”, and Participant 8, who voiced: “I want to have a body like hers and be able to wear that nice dress”.

Participants who were negative about the thin ideal regarded it as unhealthy or undesirable. Such downward comparisons were related to positive feelings in participants’ own bodies. Participant (no. 25) chose a post of a female showing a body transformation and said: “I’m happy that I do not look like the right version of the girl.” Likewise, another participant (no. 33) selected an Instagram post of a woman corresponding to the thin ideal and stated: “Actually I feel glad that my body is not as skinny as hers. I mean, she looks great, but I personally feel happy about my own body that it is healthy.” Other comments were, for instance: “She is really small and thin and underweight. This made me think about myself in a positive way and I am glad that I am healthy and not that thin” (participant no. 5), and “I feel pleased with my body because I see that everybody is unique, which makes it so special” (participant no. 2).

Body positivity

The second largest type of content relates to body positivity, which was again exclusively reported by female participants ( n  = 45 Instagram posts; 19 participants). A diverse set of posts belong to this category, referring both implicitly and explicitly to body positivity. For instance, participants selected pictures that displayed females who did not match the thin ideal, wearing bikinis or tight clothes. Also, candid pictures were selected, which are informal pictures captured without creating a posed appearance capturing the subject in moments that convey emotion and are honest and truthful. Additionally, posts that explicitly referred to body positivity were selected, such as illustrations and quotes showing that female bodies are beautiful no matter their size. An illustrative example of this category, selected by one of the participants (no. 28), is displayed in Fig. 2 , which shows an image of different body types with the subscription ‘we shall be different, and we shall love our bodies’. The participant explained that it impacted her “Because it represents different bodies and shows that everybody is good the way it is” while further stating that “It does not matter how you look, your body is perfect, and you should love it”.

Kale.themwith.kindness, Instagram post, 2022.

Participants had both societal and personal motives for selecting content related to body positivity. Societal motives were based on body positivity as criticism of current beauty standards that are advocated in advertisements or by social media influencers. One of the participants (no. 33), for instance, motivated her selection of a picture that showcases different breast sizes and forms with: “It made me think that society often still sexualizes women’s bodies and that this is not okay. This ad is a positive step into celebrating the diversity of our bodies.”, she further stated, “[…] This made me realize that we are all perfect, no matter how we look like, and that society takes a step forward in normalizing the female body.” Another participant (no. 14) shared this opinion and disclosed her discomfort about how unrealistic the beauty standards of society are, as “this can be hard for people who are unsure about themselves”.

Personal motives of participants included the relatability of the content as well as the reassurance of one’s own body image that was triggered by the selected content. For instance, one of the participants (no. 25) selected a picture of Lena Meyer Landrut (a German celebrity), who is lying on the couch without makeup on (i.e., a candid picture). She motivated her selection by: “It’s okay to have a bad day and to feel tired. We don’t have to be perfect or always good-looking.” Furthermore, a participant (no. 29) explained her selection of a bikini picture of a woman who does not meet the standards of the thin ideal through: “Even if you don’t have the flattest tummy, you can show yourself off. She [the woman in the picture] encouraged me that there is nothing to be ashamed of.”

All participants who selected body-positive content emphasized that they were positively influenced by it, and when a social comparison was indicated, this was mostly done in a downward way. An example of a positive emotion triggered by the selected Instagram post was addressed by participant no. 3: “I selected this post because it made me feel good and happy because although the post is not flattering at all, the woman seems so confident and happy”. Another example of triggering positive emotions is illustrated by the following quote: “The picture shows some natural stretches and lines. It made me realize that natural bodies don’t look perfect. It had a positive effect on my mood” (participant 20).

The third category includes pictures related to fitness ( n  = 30 Instagram posts; 12 participants), which was selected by both men (24 posts) and women (6 posts). All screenshotted Instagram posts displayed the creators posting content in which they were posing for the camera showing off their muscles both with and without clothes or pictures of them working out in the gym. Figure 3 , selected by participant no. 15, illustrates this category. He explained that this post motivated him to go to the gym.

Davidlaid, Instagram post, 2022.

Overall, all participants who selected content within this category engaged in upward social comparison, comparing themselves to someone who they thought was looking better than themselves. However, a clear contrasting gender differentiation concerning motivation to select this type of content and expressed triggered effects were brought to light. In the case of male participants, the reason was primarily because it motivated them to go to the gym and work on their bodies. All male participants belonging to the Fitness category reported being left motivated and inspired. As an example, participant no. 7 reported on his selection of an Instagram post in which a male is powerlifting: “Because it’s an example for myself to work hard on my body and to change myself for the better”. Similarly, participant no. 21 selected an Instagram post of a male posing in a gym presenting his upper body, to which the participant stated: “That is my goal physique, I have to work out harder [and I am] motivated to do more.” Moreover, participant no. 12, who selected an Instagram post in which a male is working out and showing off his arm muscles, stated: “It motivates me to see what the body is capable of doing”. Similarly, another participant (no. 15) screenshotted a post of a male in the gym highly demanding his upper body and expressed: “I felt motivated to push myself to the limit in the gym”.

On the other hand, female participants chose fitness content as a negative reminder that they should work on themselves more, specifically their body and fitness. In comparison to males, females engaging in upward social comparison were not left remotely uplifted, yet rather negatively triggered by this type of content. As an example, participant 9 chose the content of a female influencer who is posing in her workout outfit advocating to move one’s body and expressed being “disappointed in myself [..] of how long I haven’t trained anymore”. Comparably, another female participant (no. 17) chose a post of a female in the gym taking a mirror picture showing off her physique, to which the participant explained: “It made me think about how my progress would have been if I went to the gym more often.” It made her feel: “Sad because I could have been fitter now and I would have had a better routine with gym in my life”. Adding to the list, participant 6 chose a post from a female creator in a plank position and reported the post being “an explicit call to action” as “I am not sporty enough”. Likewise, another female participant (no. 14) chose to report a post in which a new workout video was advertised and stated that “I am doing not enough sports currently” and “That I should do more sport if I want to lose weight […]”.

Different than the other categories, this last category concerns lifestyle posts ( n  = 12 Instagram posts; 6 participants). It was apparent that posts of the lifestyle category neglected physiques or other bodily aspects, thereby taking away upward or downward comparisons. More central in this category was how Instagram posts conveyed feelings and transmitted emotions. The focus of the reported Instagram pictures was primarily on the context in which the people were photographed, for instance, in a club, at a concert, out on the beach, what they are doing in the picture, or on the outfits people are wearing. Figure 4 shows an Instagram post of a singer on stage at a concert, which is illustrative for this category. The participant who selected this picture (no. 23) motivated this selection by: “I feel good that there is a scene where your body is not important; I don’t care about his body, just about his music”. As another example, participant 5 chose a picture of a person being photographed by a friend sitting in a chair with a wine glass in his hand and food on the table and said that he chose this post “because he is enjoying his life by sitting by the water and drinking wine and I would like to do that as well, it “makes me thinking of drinking with friends and having a good time”. Other posts belonging to the Lifestyle category concerns clothes and outfits. Participant 5, for instance, commented on a selected post of a girl with the motivation: “I liked her outfit and would want that too [..], I would like to shop now”. Similarly, participant 33 motivated her selection by: “I just really like her style” (participant 33).

Redlean.juice2, Instagram post, 2022.

Posts that belonged to the Lifestyle category mostly triggered neutral feelings towards one’s own body but elicited a positive overall mood. An illustrative comment on a selected picture of two celebrities taking a selfie holding each other in their arms was: “I think it made me feel good because I saw a great picture of two friends hanging out with each other. It didn’t really affect my mood about my body” (participant 7). Additionally, participant 9 chose a picture of her friend getting married and said, “It made me feel glad not to be married yet”.

Evaluations and realizations of participants

On the 5th and last diary study day, participants were asked to express their thoughts, feelings, and evaluations of this study. Out of all the collected answers, it was clear that participants were critical of the underlying mechanisms of Instagram, which, according to the participants, promote an ideal body image through the posted content and the algorithms of the platform. One of the participants (no. 2) stated: “[…] nobody is really representing themselves in a real and honest and transparent way”. Another participant (no. 24) commented “[…] Instagram only suggest good looking people and almost no normal bodies”, and participant 3 reported, “[…] it’s human to have problems. Some people don’t see that and could get serious problems because of how influencers share their perfect life”.

Participants also noticed the impact the platform had on their own moods and feelings: “There are so many pictures of influencers with perfect bodies and perfect skin. It’s crazy how many times I’ve thought to myself ‘I want to have this body´. It’s really unhealthy” (participant 26). One participant (no. 13) summarized it in an interesting way: “Most of the ads and influencers show the standard beauty standards. I knew that before, but when you start focusing on it, it is actually a bit sad. Generally, everything seems to be extreme. Either you are extremely perfect or extremely for body positivity. Nobody seems to be fine with just being themselves”.

It became apparent that after the diary study days, participants were more consciously in contact with their Instagram feed and their feelings. As an example, one participant (no. 10) said: “Automatically you compare yourself with other people you don’t even know. Sometimes that was motivating […]. But often, it made me also feel worse off about my own body, which is horrible, in my opinion. I think not seeing this kind of content too often is for sure healthier”. Moreover, it was stated that “[…] it really depends on if the person participating in this study is happy with their body or not. For me, I don’t really get affected by other people’s bodies, but people with low self-esteem can get affected by the amount of “perfect bodies” on social media” (participant 12).

Alongside expressing their thoughts on Instagram, participants also shared their opinions on the study, which were overall positive. For instance, one participant (no. 3) stated.: “I thought that it was a great idea because I got to know my body image better and […] it’s important to know and realize that you should take good care of your body”. Moreover, it was expressed that: “I got more conscious about what my body image really means to me and what type of pictures/bodies have an effect on me. […] I realized through this study that it definitely gets amplified through Instagram content, and I don’t believe it to be necessarily healthy” (participant no. 20). Similarly, another participant (no. 26) stated and learned to appreciate that: “I actually have been thinking these days about how much I actually love my body. It keeps me alive, and everybody has a different body”.

The current study aimed to explore the dynamics between the content youth are exposed to on Instagram and their body image by means of a diary study. Research up until this point has mainly investigated this relationship quantitatively (e.g., Ahadzadeh et al., 2017 ; Brewster et al., 2019 ; Sebre and Miltuze, 2021 ) and has not delved deep into the complex relationship between being exposed to social media content and body image. Previous literature suggests that online social comparison leads to negative effects on body image and body dissatisfaction (Myers and Crowther, 2009 ; Eyal and Te’eni-Harari, 2013 ; Babaleye et al., 2020 ). The current study has shown that different established content categories, entailing Thin Ideal, Body Positivity, Fitness, and Lifestyle, triggered different responses with regard to youths’ body image.

The Thin Ideal body image category was most frequently selected, and only by female participants. They oftentimes reported negative thin ideal content in relation to upward social comparison, where participants compared their own body with the images displaying bodies or single body parts most esthetic and “perfect”. This thin ideal content made them feel bad as they perceived their own bodies as not corresponding with this content, leading to a negative body image and negative feelings towards one’s body. This type of content is often referred to in studies on the negative effects of social media use on body image (Aparicio-Martínez et al., 2019 ; Holland and Tiggemann, 2016 ; Qi and Cui, 2018 ). However, it also happened that the participants compared their bodies in a downward way with thin ideal content, emphasizing that they felt more comfortable in their own bodies than the bodies represented. Such instances triggered positive feelings regarding the participants’ own body image and can be construed as possible defense mechanisms to reduce the threat of a negative sense of self (Stapel and Schwinghammer, 2004 ; Wayment and O’Mara, 2008 ). The different effects correspond with previous studies that showed a connection between upward comparisons and negative emotions (Lewallen and Behm-Morawitz, 2016 ) and a neutralizing effect of downward comparison on body images (Tiggemann and Anderberg, 2019 ).

Body Positivity content was the second most often reported category and again only by women. Content-wise, this category showed completely opposite content compared to the Thin Ideal category. The body positivity movement has switched the focus from “picture-perfect” posts (thin ideal) towards natural candid pictures in which nothing seems to be staged overly “perfectly” (Manning and Mulgrew, 2022 ). Our results indicate that the message of this movement resonates among youth, as a group of female participants was relieved that society is moving away from the “perfect” thin ideal towards valuing and recognizing all types of bodies. Here, social comparison did not take place like in the Thin Ideal and Fitness categories; it was less judgmental and more of a supporting act. The participants cheered on the senders of the images for their fight against normalizing “imperfections”. Overall, the body positivity content triggered prominent positive emotions among female participants. This is in line with other research in this field (e.g., Cohen et al., 2019 ; Williamson and Karazsia, 2018 ) and illustrates the impact of the body positivity movement.

Different than the former two categories, the third category Fitness, was made up of mostly men. Instagram posts that dominate this content category are posts of very muscular and strong men, mostly in a gym working out or posing to show off their muscle gains. These images highly correspond to the societal ideal that men are supposed to be strong, fit and trained (cf., Franchina and Lo Coco, 2018 ; Frisén and Holmqvist, 2010 ; Parasecoli, 2005 ). Although male participants engaged in upward comparison with this content, it did not trigger negative emotions like in the Thin Ideal category with female youth. Instead, male participants regarded the images as inspiration and motivation to become a better version of themselves. An explanation could be that, in general, men have a more positive body image than women and thereby experience less negative social comparisons (MacNeill et al., 2017 ; Voges et al., 2019 ). An alternative explanation could be that the societal stereotype associated with males may contribute to a reduced expression of discomfort or vulnerabilities. Borinca et al. ( 2020 ) express that the differentiation between traits traditionally considered masculine and feminine is more significant for men than for women. The emphasis on such gender distinctions is particularly driven by men’s desire to distance themselves from traits associated with femininity, as it plays a crucial role in shaping their male gender identity.

The fourth category selected by both male and female youth, but less frequently than the previous three categories, is Lifestyle. This category stood out in the way that the content was not connected to extreme bodily looks and stereotypes: being overly skinny (Thin Ideal), overly “imperfect” (Body Positivity), or being extremely fit (Fitness). Instead, this category entailed images of people in a natural way and not staged, whereby the context mattered more than the people themselves. It appeared that participants selected this type of content to oppose against the focus on physical appearance on Instagram, thereby eliminating any upward or downward comparisons. Overall, such content did not trigger a predominant positive or negative feeling toward participants’ body image; it stayed neutral. However, stepping away from a bodily focus led to a comfortable feeling consisting of not being concerned about one’s body but rather solely feeling content as one is. This category shows that body image is more than feelings and thoughts about the physical aspects of one’s body (Tylka, 2011 ). Instead, societal dynamics and contextual elements, such as the environment or activities that are displayed in the image, play a role as well. Body image trigger points might not purely originate from others’ looks but may also arise from the contextual elements in which people are being displayed (Sarwer and Polonsky, 2016 ; Tylka, 2011 ).

While the categories themselves provided interesting insights, some overarching reflections allowed us to uncover additional insights. First, the results of this study indicate that body image is a gendered phenomenon as all female participants exclusively selected Instagram pictures of women, and all male participants solely chose Instagram content of men. Furthermore, the current study showed that how Instagram affects body image differs among genders. More specifically, Thin Ideal and Body Positivity content was solely selected by women, whereas Fitness content was almost exclusively selected by men. In response to these different types of content, female participants reported both negative and positive emotions triggered through the Instagram content and how they socially engaged with it, whereas male participants only indicated positive emotions. This is in line with previous work by Casale and colleagues ( 2019 ), who showed that when men and women were exposed to same-sex attractive Instagram images, only women experienced increased dissatisfaction while men showed no significant effect.

A furthermore speculative—interpretation might be that, when it comes to body image, females could lean towards a more fixed mindset, while males may exhibit tendencies aligned with a growth mindset. Someone holding a fixed mindset believes that personal characteristics and traits cannot be changed (Walker and Jiang, 2022 ), as opposed to employing a growth mindset which refers to one’s confidence in the changeability of personal characteristics and traits, improving skills with practice and impacting attitudes and actions (Dweck and Leggett, 1988 ; Tao et al., 2022 ). According to this line of reasoning, female participants holding a more fixed mindset might feel like their body image was fixed and could not be changed, leading to more negative feelings towards themselves. Alternatively, males who held a growth mindset toward their body image might feel like they would be able to make a change and therefore experience more optimism and motivation. It is important to highlight that this conclusion is merely speculative and thus warrants future research. Overall, based on previous studies (Casale et al., 2019 ; Legkauskas and Kudlaitė, 2022 ; Twenge and Martin, 2020 ; Yurdagül et al., 2019 ) and the current study, it seems that gender plays an important role in the dynamics between exposure to Instagram content and body image, and it is therefore recommended to be included in future work.

Both within the public discourse and in the scholarly debate negative effects of social media use on youth’s body image and well-being have been pointed out by stressing the effects of detrimental (upward) social comparisons and feelings of envy (Gibbons and Gerrard, 1989 ; McCarthy and Morina, 2020 ; Pedalino and Camerini, 2022 ; Taylor and Lobel, 1989 ). The present study presents a more nuanced picture. The overall relationship between positive feelings and downward comparison was observed, but the results also highlighted instances where a positive emotional connection was established with upward social comparison. This was specifically the case in relation to the fitness category images selected by men. The discovery that “prior research has largely neglected that upward comparisons on social networking sites may also facilitate positive outcomes, specifically media-induced inspiration, a motivational state highly conducive to well-being” (Meier et al., 2020 , p. 1) aligns with findings from fellow researchers who describe upward comparisons as potential motivational “pushes” (Diel et al., 2021 ). These studies and the current study suggest that different mechanisms are in place for different people and different content. Consequently, scholarly circles may no longer note that upward or downward social comparison makes one feel a specific way but that comparison in relation to the content and personality of oneself is what drives the effect.

During the evaluation of the study on the 5th diary study day, participants reported that the study design and procedure made them more conscious about their Instagram behavior and their body image and served as a helpful tool in better understanding how they navigate through their social media. Although unintended, the diary study turned out to be some sort of intervention tool that helped increase youths’ awareness of encountered body image triggers, comprehend internal processing, and allow participants to take a step back and view their relation with Instagram more consciously. This resulted in youth finding more self-love and appreciation for themselves. These encouraging positive effects have also been found through other programs aiming at awareness creation. For example, the Mindful Self-Compassion program by Neff and Germer ( 2012 ) found positive effects on self-compassion, mindfulness, and various well-being outcomes that lasted for up to one year after participation, showcasing the power of awareness creation. Although the current study was not set up as an awareness-creation program, it seemed to have created awareness among participants and might have more long-lasting effects on our participants than previously expected.

Strengths, limitations, and recommendations

The main strength of this study is that it aimed to entangle some of the complex interactions between youths’ Instagram content consumption and their body image. As one of the first qualitative approaches used in this field, this diary study uncovered youths’ habits, engagements, motivations, and feelings regarding their social media consumption. The frequent and real-time collection of data, which is part of the diary study design, enabled us to record youths’ answers in their natural environment, which has been proven to deliver more reliable results (Carter and Mankoff, 2005 ; Chun, 2016 ).

However, there are also some limitations that need to be taken seriously. First, our study results suggested that males tend to see more Fitness content and females tend to see more Thin Ideal and Body Positivity content and that that content is also differentially affecting their body image. However, males only comprised 21% of the whole sample which might have affected the reliability and generalizability of our findings. Additionally, this sample was highly dominated by German and Dutch participants. As body image seems to be a societally created construct, results may vary depending on different cultures and parts of the world, and our results do not apply to all youth (Sarwer and Polonsky, 2016 ; Sotiriou and Awad, 2020 ; Wardle et al., 1993 ). For future research, it would therefore be valuable to employ a more diverse sampling pool embodying more diverse backgrounds and an equal distribution of gender.

Second, the prompt that we used for each diary input, in which we asked participants to think about their own body image, might have directed participants in a certain direction. The wording of the prompt matters, as it might have been the case that the prompt used in this study encouraged participants to filter out Instagram content of the same sex. We specifically prompted participants to select the content that triggered “your body image”, potentially steering participants in the direction of selecting same-sex Instagram content as they might identify most with the body image of same-sex individuals on Instagram. Additionally, as participants had to identify one Instagram post each day, participants were ‘forced’ to use Instagram each day and actively search for content that was related to their body image. In a natural setting, participants might not have used Instagram each day or might have been differently impacted due to lower awareness. It is therefore recommended to—next to the diary study design—examine youths’ social media behaviors and engagement through less awareness-creation methods such as eye tracking or data scraping (Kohout et al., 2023 ; Song and Moon, 2018 ; Vergara et al., 2020 ).

Additionally, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution, it is suggested that future studies map out profiles for youth by investigating individual patterns across various diary study days. As this study has successfully identified trends among participants and highlighted the dominance of certain content categories, future research could investigate the effects of content on youths’ body image and their emotions. (Intensive) longitudinal designs (e.g., Hamaker and Wichers, 2017 ), in particular, would be well-suited to uncover fluctuations in these influences over time, providing a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics between social media content and adolescents’ body image and well-being. Highlighting certain individual trigger points and insights into how youth regulate their emotions most adaptively will aid the development of targeted ways to help youth encourage a positive body image (Mahon and Hevey, 2021 ). This is especially important since the content that youth are exposed to is amplified by social media algorithms (Bozzola et al., 2022 ). In other words: being exposed to a lot of thin ideal content will trigger the exposure to more thin ideal content, creating a vicious cycle of the same type of content evoking certain emotions. Such individual cycles and the prominence of harmful content that could trigger specific individuals can be turned around by helping youth controlling the content that they are exposed to, for example, by applying filters (Mahon and Hevey, 2021 ).

The focus on quantitative research in the field of social media and body image has restrained the scientific research community from making sense of how social media content affects youth and how that happens. With the current study, we aimed to gather a deeper and more nuanced understanding of young people’s body image trigger points, uncovering their origin, the type of content, and the following emotional consequences. Results revealed that different types of content (i.e., Thin Ideal, Body Positivity, Fitness, and Lifestyle) on Instagram affected youths’ body image in different ways. Highlighting the complexity of this topic, it was shown that each content category did not always have the same effect on each individual: the same content could end up in either upward or downward comparison and either positive, negative, or neutral effects on mood. The results of this study highlighted that gender plays an important role in the dynamics between exposure to Instagram content and body image, and it is therefore recommended to be included in future work. In conclusion, the findings emphasize the significance of continuing research in this field, given the omnipresence of social media platforms like Instagram in the lives of young people.

Data availability

The dataset generated during and analyzed during the current study is available in DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities, https://doi.org/10.17026/SS/7M90LJ .

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Glaser, H.C., Jansma, S.R. & Scholten, H. A diary study investigating the differential impacts of Instagram content on youths’ body image. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 458 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02960-3

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Social media and body image: Recent trends and future directions

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• 1 School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Parkstraat 45, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 3 College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
• PMID: 35030460
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.12.002

This review presents recent trends in social media and body image research, with a particular focus on different social media platforms, features unique to social media, and potentially positive content for body image. First, it was found that visual platforms (e.g. Instagram) were more dysfunctional for body image than more textual platforms (e.g. Facebook). Second, taking and editing (but not posting) selfies resulted in negative effects on body image. Positive comments intensified the effects of exposure to idealized content. Third, of the forms of potentially positive content examined in recent research (i.e. fitspiration, disclaimer labels, and body positivity), only body positivity content had a positive effect on body image. Recommendations for future research are offered.

Keywords: Body image; Body positivity; Objectification; Social comparison; Social media.

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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• Body Image*
• Social Media*

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Processing body image on social media: gender differences in adolescent boys’ and girls’ agency and active coping.

• School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Although scholars continue to debate the influence of social media on body image, increased social media use, especially engaging in appearance-related behaviors may be a potential risk factor for body dissatisfaction in adolescents. Little research has investigated how adolescents process appearance-related content and the potential strategies they use to protect body image perceptions on social media. To investigate coping strategies used by adolescents, four qualitative focus groups were conducted with 29 adolescents (23 girls) aged 15–16 years ( M = 15.31, SD = 0.47) in mixed-gender Irish secondary schools. Thematic analysis revealed that adolescents employed many different behavioral strategies such as avoiding negative content and selecting positive content. Cognitive processing strategies such as critically evaluating body-related content, psychologically distancing from and positively reframing challenging content were also used, although less frequently. Boys appeared to exhibit greater positive agency over their bodies and social media use and tended to use more active coping styles than girls. Efforts to promote body image on social media such as body positive pages and exposing artificial social media content were considered limited in their effectiveness.

Introduction

Body dissatisfaction, defined as “a person’s negative thoughts and feelings about his/her body” ( Grogan, 1999 , p. 2) is a leading cause of eating disorders, disordered eating, low self-esteem and poor psychological wellbeing ( Stice and Shaw, 2002 ; Paxton et al., 2006 ; Cruz-Sáez et al., 2018 ). Relatively high prevalence rates of body weight dissatisfaction have been reported cross culturally among adolescent girls [Mean = 48%, Range (26–62%)] and boys [Mean = 31%, Range (15–44%)] in 26 countries ( Al Sabbah et al., 2009 ). Social media is extensively used by adolescents ( Pew Research Center, 2018 ; Rodgers et al., 2020 ) and has received a lot of research attention as a possible risk factor for body dissatisfaction ( Rodgers and Melioli, 2016 ).

While the causes of body dissatisfaction are considered multifaceted, and include biological, evolutionary, psychological and sociocultural factors ( Polivy and Herman, 2002 ; Ferguson et al., 2011 ; Fitzsimmons-Craft, 2011 ), social media is a sociocultural factor that has been suggested by some to be linked to body dissatisfaction. However, the extent to which social media influences body dissatisfaction is debated and the evidence is inconsistent; some studies find associations between social media use and body dissatisfaction ( Fardouly et al., 2017 ; Scully et al., 2020 ), others find that social media use is associated with positive body image ( Cohen et al., 2019 ), some observe no direct relationships ( Ferguson et al., 2014 ; Cohen et al., 2017 ) and others suggest that social media may indirectly influence body dissatisfaction by increasing opportunities for other predictors of body dissatisfaction such as peer competition ( Ferguson et al., 2014 ). Furthermore, the inferences that can be drawn regarding social media effects may also be limited by methodological issues in the literature, such as the inability to capture the dynamic, interactive, and personalized nature of social media within a controlled environment or failure to use appropriate controls and procedures to account for demand characteristics ( Fardouly and Vartanian, 2016 ).

Nonetheless, concurring with previous systematic reviews (e.g., Holland and Tiggemann, 2016 ), a recent meta-analysis of 63 independent samples observed a small, positive, significant relationship between social media use and body image disturbance ( Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ). It should be noted that the meta-analysis’ conclusions are constrained by the literature on which they are based, which as mentioned, has its limitations (i.e., demand characteristics, single-responder bias, common method variance, lack of preregistration, and the fact that many studies report simple bivariate correlations). These limitations may result in an over-estimate of the effect size; consequently, the small effects in this meta-analysis do not necessarily confirm the existence of effects and therefore must be considered as suggestive. 1 Even though the effect size was small, the authors noted that it is important to further explore the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction because social media is extensively used by adolescents. Adolescence is also a particularly vulnerable time for body image ( Voelker et al., 2015 ), and it is important to identify risk/protective factors for body dissatisfaction on social media to help foster more favorable body image during this sensitive developmental period.

Sociocultural theories of body image, such as the Tripartite model ( Thompson et al., 1999 ), propose that social media, influences body image perceptions by conveying messages that emphasize the importance of appearance and pressurize the attainment of unrealistic body ideals. These body-related messages are proposed to give rise to body dissatisfaction directly and indirectly via two mediating mechanisms: internalization of and appearance comparisons with body ideals. Body ideal internalization involves endorsing and pursuing body ideals as a personal body standard ( Thompson and Stice, 2001 ), while appearance comparisons involve evaluating one’s appearance relative to others ( Jones, 2001 ). Because the body ideals that individuals internalize are largely unrealistic and unattainable, failure to exemplify these ideals becomes a source of body dissatisfaction when these ideals are valued as a personal goal ( Thompson et al., 1999 ). Upward comparisons, comparisons with “superior” others highlight discrepancies between one’s own body and body ideals thereby giving rise to body dissatisfaction ( van den Berg et al., 2002 ).

Social media are highly visual, appearance focused platforms that extend opportunities to engage in these body dissatisfaction-inducing behaviors ( Rodgers and Melioli, 2016 ). Popular social media platforms used by adolescents such as Instagram and Snapchat ( Pew Research Center, 2018 ), contain a profusion of idealized body related content, which tend to endorse muscular ideals (characterized by a v-shaped torso, visible abs, large biceps, and low body fat,) and lean/athletic ideals (characterized by a toned body with low body fat,) for men/boys. Thin ideals (characterized by a lean physique with low body fat and a narrow waist), fit/athletic ideals (characterized by a lean and muscular physique), and curvy ideals (characterized by a thin waist and large bosom/bottom) are generally more relevant for women/girls ( Betz and Ramsey, 2017 ). Adolescents have been found to endorse and strive for these ideals, despite acknowledging the unrealistic nature of these bodies ( Edcoms and Credos, 2016 ; Burnette et al., 2017 ; Bell et al., 2019 ).

Consistent with the Tripartite model, comparisons with celebrities, sports stars, and peers who embody these ideals on social media have been reported by adolescents to give rise to feelings of body dissatisfaction ( Edcoms and Credos, 2016 ; Burnette et al., 2017 ). Additionally, posting and editing “selfies” (self-portraits of one’s face/body) on social media amplify adolescents’ tendencies to compare and critically evaluate their appearance ( Chua and Chang, 2016 ; Bell, 2019 ). Adolescent girls tend to engage more in these self-presentation behaviors than boys and tend to be far more invested and influenced by the feedback indices such as “likes” and “comments” received on these posts. Although boys tend not to be greatly affected by the number of “likes” they receive, they are concerned about receiving negative commentary from peers on social media ( Kenny et al., 2017 ).

Some studies suggest that girls’ body image perceptions are more strongly and negatively impacted by social media because they engage with and invest more in body-related content than boys ( Frisén and Holmqvist, 2010 ; McAndrew and Jeong, 2012 ; Chua and Chang, 2016 ). Boys have also been found to perceive social media as a more positive, motivating influence on their body image vs. girls who tend to report that social media exerts more negative effects on their body image ( Bell et al., 2019 ). Boys are also thought to be protected somewhat from exposure to aesthetic body ideals, because they value body functionality over aesthetics ( Grogan and Richards, 2002 ). However, recent meta-analyses suggest that the magnitude of social media’s influence on body image is the same for girls and boys ( Holland and Tiggemann, 2016 ; Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ). It has also been suggested that social media’s impact on male body image may be underestimated because of boys’ tendencies to disclose or downplay body image issues because of stigma surrounding male body image ( Griffiths et al., 2014 ). However, given the methodological issues mentioned previously, the strength of relationship between social media and body image requires more robust examination.

Although appearance-related behaviors on social media have been suggested as a risk factor for body image ( Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ), little research has investigated ways that adolescents manage challenging social media content or strategies they use to buffer the negative effects of these behaviors. It is important to understand the ways that users interact with social media, because the possible body-related outcomes arising from social media use are likely to be the result of complex, reciprocal transactions between the media content and the social media user ( Valkenburg and Peter, 2013 ; Perloff, 2014 ).

Additionally, while studies have investigated ways to protect and promote adolescent body image in general, social media is a unique sociocultural context that may require specific strategies to help improve body image ( Perloff, 2014 ). Existing approaches to addressing body-dissatisfaction on social media involve teaching social media literacy in order to reduce the credibility of media messages and subsequent body ideal internalization and appearance comparison behaviors ( McLean et al., 2017 ). Although one study found a social media literacy program to be effective in producing gains in body image outcomes in adolescent girls ( McLean et al., 2016b ), similar improvements were not observed in adolescent boys ( Tamplin et al., 2018 ); this is surprising because it would be anticipated that adolescent boys, who are largely unaware of photo-manipulation/editing of male bodies on social media ( Edcoms and Credos, 2016 ), would benefit from enhanced social media literacy. Although these findings are preliminary, meta-analyses from traditional media literacy interventions indicate that although media literacy programs are effective in increasing knowledge about the media, they do not substantially change body image outcomes ( McLean et al., 2016a ). This suggests that increasing knowledge about body ideals may not alone be sufficient to address body dissatisfaction and that other strategies/coping tools are required for adolescents to effectively manage problematic appearance-focused social media. Understanding the strategies (if any) that adolescents use can inform the design of interventions such that they target self-protective skills that are in need of cultivation or further development among adolescents. Probing adolescents’ self-protective strategies can also help identify the approaches that might be most effective in improving adolescent body image and can focus intervention efforts toward these.

Only one qualitative study (to the authors’ awareness) with 38 female adolescents aged 12–14 years has explored protective and promotive coping strategies used by adolescents on social media ( Burnette et al., 2017 ). While adolescents in this sample endorsed behaviors associated with body dissatisfaction on social media, including using photo-based platforms, engaging in appearance-related behaviors and making appearance comparisons ( Rodgers and Melioli, 2016 ), they identified several factors that helped protect their body image when using social media. Girls reported that they consciously avoided undesirable social media posts that invoked appearance comparisons or body image concerns as a way of protecting their body image. While this gave adolescents a sense of personal agency over social media use, it was not regarded as a wholly effectual strategy because it was difficult to avoid unsolicited body related content on social media. Participants also evinced high social media literacy levels as they were critical of the body ideals encountered on social media, regarding them as edited, photoshopped, and unrealistic. Participants were also aware of the concerted efforts that peers went to, to capture and post a “perfect” photo of themselves. The authors posited that adolescents’ skepticism and avoidance of idealized body-related content and their appreciation of diverse beauty standards was indicative of protective filtering.

Protective filtering is an aspect of positive body image that involves selectively internalizing messages that promote positive body image and rejecting negative body-related information ( Andrew et al., 2015 ). Protective filtering has been found to buffer the negative effects of exposure to idealized body-related content in the media in adults ( Andrew et al., 2015 ). Protective filtering also appeared to provide promotive benefits to adolescents’ body image in sample of Burnette et al. (2017) . However, it is unclear whether the findings of these focus groups are generalizable across adolescents because the sample was relatively small and came from a single-sex, private school that taught social media literacy and critical thinking skills and encouraged an ethos of body appreciation, diversity, and confidence, which was reported to facilitate this protective filtering of social media content. Outside of this study, little research has investigated if adolescents use protective filtering strategies on social media and whether these filtering skills can be fostered in adolescents, including those with negative body image.

It is also not known whether aspects of social media content may help encourage protective filtering; “body acceptance” and “body positive” messages have recently propagated the social media space and have been lauded by adult women as a promising way to buffer against problematic idealized content and decrease body dissatisfaction ( Convertino et al., 2019 ; Rodgers et al., 2019 ). It is not known whether adolescents engage with this content and whether it exerts protective effects on their body image perceptions ( Bell et al., 2017 ).

Furthermore, little is known about the strategies that adolescent boys use to protect and promote body image. To the authors’ awareness no study has investigated self-protective strategies used by adolescent boys on social media. This reflects a traditional research focus on female body image, as men/boys were thought to be less impacted by body-related issues ( Parent, 2013 ). However, body image has been recognized an increasingly important issue for boys ( Parent, 2013 ), and has been found to be influenced by social media to a similar extent in both boys and girls ( Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ). Boys and girls may face different body-related challenges and pressures on social media ( Kenny et al., 2018 ; Rodgers et al., 2020 ), and subsequently may employ different strategies to manage these pressures.

This qualitative study explored adolescents’ processing and protective filtering of social media content and whether these strategies were perceived to provide protective benefits for body image. Both adolescent boys and girls were included in the study because little is known about coping or management strategies used, especially by boys, to address gender-specific issues on social media. This study aimed to inform intervention and prevention efforts in the area of body image on social media.

Materials and Methods

Focus groups investigated how adolescents managed challenging body-related content and promoted positive body image on social media. Focus groups were used because they provide a rich and ecologically valid insight into the opinions and lived experiences of participants in their own words and from their own perspectives ( Greene and Harris, 2011 ). Focus groups were favored over one-to-one interviews for this kind of exploratory work because they facilitate greater elaboration of ideas and provide a vocabulary to discuss topics ( Heary and Hennessy, 2006 ; Greene and Harris, 2011 ). In accordance with guidelines ( Heary and Hennessy, 2002 ), single sex focus groups consisting of 6–9 participants were conducted as adolescents have been found to be more comfortable about opening up and discussing sensitive issues in single rather than mixed sex groups.

Focus groups were guided using an interview schedule, which asked adolescents about their experiences and perceptions of body image on social media, the appearance-related challenges they faced on social media and the ways they manage these challenges. The results presented below will focus on adolescents’ management of challenging appearance-related content on social media, however; a brief outline of adolescents’ perceptions/experiences of social media will be provided to contextualize adolescents’ coping strategies. Given the exploratory nature of the research, conversations were allowed to flow freely, and the researcher was free to pursue related topics if they were mentioned.

Participants

A convenience sample of 29 participants, 23 girls, and 6 boys, aged between 15 and 16 years ( M = 15.31, SD = 0.47) were recruited from two mixed sex Irish secondary schools, one urban private school and one rural community school for a study investigating adolescents’ experiences and perceptions of body image on social media. The study was only open to fourth year students who used social media and who received parental consent to participate. Participants’ ethnicity and other sociodemographic information were not recorded. Four focus groups were conducted, three with girls only and one with boys only (see Table 1 ).

Table 1 . Composition and duration of adolescent focus groups.

Focus groups were audio recorded using an Olympus WS853 voice recorder and qualitative analysis software, MAXQDA (Version 2018.1) was used to analyze the data. The interview schedule included questions such as; (1) What social media activities/behaviors do you think help/harm body image perceptions? (2) What characteristics of social media platforms promote positive body image/negatively impact body image? and (3) How do you manage challenging appearance-focused content on social media?

Full ethical approval was received from the ethics committee at Trinity College Dublin. Permission from school principals was obtained to allow the study to be hosted in schools and for students to participate in the study. Informed consent from parents and informed assent from participants was obtained prior to study commencement. Focus groups were conducted on the school premises and participants were assigned to focus groups based on their class group. Participants’ gender, age, and school attended were obtained in demographic questionnaires that participants completed prior to the focus groups. Focus groups were conducted by two female researchers; the primary researcher led the discussion, while the secondary researcher took notes and kept track of time. Focus groups lasted approximately 30–50 min and participants were offered refreshments, thanked and debriefed afterward.

Data Analysis

Focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim by the primary researcher (CM) and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis was guided by six step procedure of Braun and Clarke (2006) , which involved firstly becoming familiar with the data by transcribing data, reading transcripts and listening to audio recordings (Step 1). Then, initial semantic codes were generated and assigned to the data using MAXQDA software (Step 2). Semantic coding, which involves characterization of explicit, surface meaning of content was deemed the most appropriate form of coding of the personal experiences pertinent to the research question. Data was also coded according to an essentialist/realist perspective, which assumes a unidirectional relationship between meaning and experience. This approach allows for a straightforward exploration of motivations, experiences, and meaning, which were the focus of the research questions. These codes were organized into a coding frame containing concise labels and descriptions for codes was established. Related codes were grouped together to form themes and subthemes (Step 3). An inductive approach, which allows themes to emerge from the data rather than being informed by pre-existing literature, was applied to generate themes ( Thomas, 2006 ). These themes were refined by reviewing the data at the level of the coded extracts and entire data sets to ensure that distinct, coherent themes were generated (Step 4). Themes and subthemes were assigned names and definitions (Step 5).

To verify whether these themes characterized the data, inter-rater agreement was conducted both on codes within the coding frame and final themes identified in the data. As recommended by Breen (2006) , an independent researcher (not involved in hosting focus groups) used MAXQDA to review the coded transcriptions and indicate their agreement or disagreement with each of the pre-existing codes and themes; they could also suggest additional codes and themes. The primary researcher reviewed the additional codes/themes suggested by the independent researcher and adjusted coding schemes where appropriate, in consultation with the project lead (DH). According to Breen (2006) , to attain adequate consistency (reliability), code-to-sentence matches should occur for at least 80% of cases. Agreement between coders was calculated using the Kappa Coefficient ( Brennan and Prediger, 1981 ) was high, K = 0.92, indicating good inter-rater agreement. Finally, themes were described and contextualized within relevant literature on social media and body image in adolescents (Step 6). These steps were conducted in an iterative, recursive manner.

The researcher adopted a reflexive approach and acknowledged that their own biases and backgrounds shaped the data obtained and the way it was interpreted. The researcher recognized that as a white, Irish, educated woman in her mid-twenties, she could resonate with the struggles of body image and social media pressures to pursue body ideals (insider position) and could recognize that the body-related pursuits and pressures of men/boys and adolescents may differ from her own, and that adolescents’ experience of social media content and affordances may also be divergent (outsider position; Berger, 2015 ). She also recognized that her adult and female status may have affected adolescents’ interactions and the ways they disclosed information about body image and social media ( Berger, 2015 ; Dodgson, 2019 ).

Adolescents reported that they were prolific, habitual users of social media, showing preferences for appearance focused platforms; adolescents, especially girls explicitly reported that they felt social media exerted a mostly negative influence on their body image. Girls strove to attain female body ideals, while boys largely endorsed functionality ideals; appearance comparisons tended to induce body dissatisfaction when these appearance-related goals were not met. Adolescent girls were perceived to invest more in appearance-related behaviors on social media and to experience greater levels body-related pressure, dissatisfaction and self-criticism than boys. Appearance comparisons with peers, social media influencers, and celebrities were identified as the main sources of body dissatisfaction on social media. Thematic analysis revealed two key themes, and various subthemes pertaining to the management of body image on social media by adolescents.

Theme 1: Behavioral Strategies Used to Manage Problematic Social Media Content

Avoidant strategies.

Adolescents reported using avoidant strategies and unfollowing content that contained body-ideals and reducing their social media use. Female 22 “ stopped using [social media as much] ,” while Female 21 “ unfollowed all the celebrities and people with unrealistic body goal standards ” and it was commonly reported that “ not seeing it [social media] as much helped ” (Female 21).

Avoiding social comparisons was emphasized as a core strategy to protect body image. However, some participants felt that avoidance strategies were limited in their effectiveness because it was difficult evade appearance comparisons as body-related images “ were always just popping up ” (Female 2) and body-related content was “ kind of pushed at [them] sometimes ” (Female 2) irrespective of whether they were interested in it or not.

Active Selection of Positive Content

Boys believed that they could control the outcomes of social media use by selecting content that promoted their self-image. Boys reported that they “ [did not] really get negative thoughts from looking at [social media], usually [they] just look[ed] at positive stuff ” (Male 4).

However, girls reported that they did not actively select positive content as they felt that all body-related content on social media was damaging. Even content designed to improve body image, such as body-positive content, was viewed skeptically by girls. While girls acknowledged and lauded increased efforts to promote body-acceptance, they held reservations about the effectiveness of these efforts. Participants felt that there was a huge disparity between “ the picture ,” which “ portrays a different message to what it’s captioned ” (Female 22). Participants noted that while a picture may be accompanied by a wholesome caption advocating ostensibly positive messages, the picture itself, which was often appearance/body-focused and objectified, was sending the opposite message.

Female 16 “I think that, what people say when they post something, like what they say might be positive and well-meaning but nearly the pictures themselves speak for themselves and maybe what they are promoting in the pictures isn’t healthy even though they are saying ‘self-love’.”

Participants also found it difficult to endorse messages of body acceptance when they were delivered by individuals who embodied body ideals. Participants found it difficult to reconcile “ See[ing] a very skinny woman and she says ‘love your imperfections’ ” (Female 23) because they felt that it was easy for individuals who had perfect bodies to promote the notion of body acceptance as they seemingly had reason to be happy with their bodies. Participants found it difficult to believe that these individuals struggled with body image concerns and thus were reluctant to buy into the notions of acceptance that these individuals were promoting.

Female 7 “A lot of influencers do promote like body confidence and all that but that’s kind of easy for them to say at the same time because they do have the perfect body say for Instagram and all that sort of stuff.”

Other self-acceptance content was recently noted to contain diverse body types including “ plus size models rather than just the really stick thin skinny ones ” (Female 5), which was lauded because it provided a more realistic representation of body image and body types on social media. However, body ideal content with “ skinnier ones [sic: individuals] ” was observed to “ get more positivity back than the plus size ones [individuals] would ” (Female 2) and body ideals were the main attentional draw that influenced bodily self-perceptions. Furthermore, some participants still felt that this body-diversity content reflected extreme body types such as overweight bodies and therefore failed encompass “normal” bodies such as their own.

Female 3 “Nothing’s like normal if you know what I mean.”

Researcher “Right ok, so it’s extremes of all of them kind of?”

Female 3 “Yeah, yeah.”

Researcher “So, nothing in the middle?”

Female 3 “Yeah.”

Active Selection of Alternative Platforms

Although girls felt limited in their ability to engage in positive body-related content, especially on Instagram, some girls actively chose to engage with VSCO, an alternative social media platform that was considered less damaging for body image. VSCO was favored because it was not considered to be as “serious” as Instagram and did not contain feedback indices “likes,” “comments” or hierarchical structures such as “followers,” which were problematic features of Instagram. Girls felt that they “did not feel pressure ” and could post “ a picture on VSCO with no makeup on … but would not put [the same photo] up on Instagram ” (Female 2). Female 1 noted that on “ Instagram ‐ you have to look perfect because you can see how many likes you get and people feel pressured into, they want more likes and that, but you cannot see that on VSCO .”

VSCO appeared to provide an alternative venue for girls to safely explore their body image without fears of overt judgment from others. However, its use was mentioned by girls in one school, and even among this group Instagram surpassed VSCO in terms of popularity despite the negative effects associated with Instagram.

Theme 2: Cognitive Strategies

Psychological distancing strategies.

Psychologically distancing oneself from comparison targets was a common strategy utilized by both boys and girls. Focusing on differences between the goals and values of comparison targets vs. themselves served to increase the psychological distance from these targets in boys and lessen their desire or drive to attain these bodies. Male 1 reconciled that “ They’re [celebrities/sports stars/social influencers] kind of devoting their whole life to it ,” while Male 4 concurred “ Yeah that’s their job like .” Boys felt that they too could attain these ideals if they devoted themselves to this extent but felt secure in their own bodies because they did not hold the same investment or commitment as individuals who possessed body ideals.

Some girls attained psychological distance from targets by focusing on the manipulated, edited nature of the images. Female 10 noted that celebrities/social influencers on social media “use filters ” and reconciled that “ if [she] used them[filters] [she] would look way better . ” “Know[ing] that they [celebrities/social influencers] are photoshopped ” helped her to be less affected by them because she knew they were “ unrealistic looking .” Some girls also attempted to distance themselves from comparison targets by acknowledging that although they often liked the appearance of these individuals, they felt that their features were too extreme and ill-suited to their own appearance.

Female 10 “I like the way they look but I don’t think I’d like to look as … extreme as they do. I don’t think it looks normal. But I think it looks normal with them because they all look like that, but if I walked in like them, I’d look weird, I’d look like an alien.”

While this distancing strategy worked for some, most girls noted that idealized images negatively affected them regardless of the knowledge of their manipulation and this limited the effectiveness of psychological distancing.

Reframing Strategies

Both boys and girls reported that reflective practices such as taking a step back, conducting reality checks and looking at the bigger picture enabled them to reassure themselves. Other strategies mentioned by adolescents involved reframing or putting a positive spin on challenging content. One boy suggested that focusing on goals and achievement rather than focusing on discrepancies and feeling self-pity enabled him to process social media content in a healthier way.

Male 4 “Depends on what way you view it really. If you look at it like, saying they’re this and they’re that and I’m just here, you’re not – you’re always just going to be feeling shite like. You are not going to move forward at all. If you just take – just watch whoever, take inspiration, try work yourself, if you want to be like them, work yourself towards being like them.”

In addition, accepting one’s uniqueness and viewing difference as a good rather than negative thing was identified by a female participant as a way of framing body image in a positive light.

Female 21 “I think the problem overall is that we are looking at difference as if it were a problem, we are saying “Why don’t I look like that? Why can’t I be that person?” But I think we all just have to learn to accept that we are all different and we know these facts, but we chose to ignore them!”

Ceasing to judge others and oneself was also mentioned by a few participants, however, it was acknowledged that this was difficult to achieve. Although boys appeared to be less judgmental and more accepting of their bodies with Male 4 noting “ I am grand just the way I am ,” girls struggled to accept their bodies and avoid negative critical self-evaluations, with Female 5 stating “ You have to get a certain amount of likes … or else it’s not like good enough .”

Female 19 “The more you look at the photo you’re like ‘God I hate it’ you see things that other people wouldn’t see and you’re like ‘I hate everything about it’.”

One girl stressed the value of maintaining a compassionate mindset and endorsed the notion that everyone struggles with the same issues and not to be so harsh and critical toward oneself.

Female 21 “I think we always compare ourselves to the people we see on social media, so we don’t see their flaws, because we are busy pointing out our own in comparison to theirs. We don’t realise that not everyone is perfect as well. And because of that we are kind of blind.”

Female 21 “I just think that young girls need to stop comparing themselves and to take a minute to realise that we are all the same, we are all doing the exact same thing; We are all sitting at home, scrolling. And all the likes we receive, it’s just a double tap of the finger, that person probably doesn’t probably even look at it for more two seconds, we need to stop overthinking everything.”

However, these reframing strategies were only mentioned by a few individuals in focus groups and did not typically reflect the whole groups’ responses to body-related content on social media.

Some participants, particularly girls, reported that they felt social media negatively influenced their body image perceptions. Aligning with the literature, adolescents reported that appearance-focused activities like photo sharing/editing practices and appearance comparisons with celebrities, social media influencers, and peers led to feelings of body dissatisfaction ( Edcoms and Credos, 2016 ; Rodgers and Melioli, 2016 ; Burnette et al., 2017 ).

Limiting their social media use and avoiding, unfollowing, or ignoring problematic body related content were the strategies most used by adolescents to protect their body image on social media. However, as found by Burnette et al. (2017) , these strategies were considered limited in their effectiveness because of the difficulty in avoiding ubiquitous body-related content on social media. Adolescents were aware of targeted advertising and the fact that their newsfeeds were often propagated with content that they did not necessarily want or chose to see; this limited their perceived control over social media use, especially among girls.

Aligning with these control beliefs, girls tended to report more passive responses to social media such as “putting up” with problematic content. Some boys, on the other hand, reported that they actively sought out and selected positive content that inspired them to exercise or helped them improve in some way. It should be noted that the number of boys in the present study was relatively small. Adolescent girls did not appear to engage in such active selection strategies as they felt that any content related to body image exerted negative effects on them, including content designed to promote positive body image. Adolescent girls’ reservations about body positive/acceptance content is notable as it contrasts with the endorsement of the protective effects of this content for body image in the literature (e.g., Convertino et al., 2019 ; Rodgers et al., 2019 ); given the recency of its emergence, the limitations of body positive content may not have been extensively documented in the literature or it may be the case that this kind of content resonates with adult women but not adolescents. Although the influence of body positive content on adolescent body image perceptions requires further research, these findings indicate that adolescent girls experienced social media as a largely negative and disempowering space for body image.

However, VSCO was a photo-sharing platform that was preferred by some girls to Instagram because it did not contain feedback indices such as likes, comments, followers and subsequently did not put as much appearance-related pressure on girls. VSCO has not previously featured in body image research and is worthy of further research attention because it represents a platform that may contain protective features for body image, namely the lack of hierarchical popularity structures or feedback indices.

Some girls distanced themselves from body ideals by reminding themselves that body ideals were not attainable – a strategy also noted by Burnette et al. (2017) . However, most girls reported that their knowledge of unrealistic body ideals did little to protect their body image perceptions and they continued to compare despite this awareness. Girls also achieved psychological distance from body ideals by reasoning that while they admired certain body features on others, they did not desire them themselves because these features would be incompatible with their own appearance. Adolescent boys in this sample reported deprioritizing the importance of the muscular ideal and distancing themselves from comparison targets as a way of protecting body image perceptions. This low investment in body-related content was also identified by Holmqvist and Frisén (2012) as a feature that supported adolescent boys’ body image.

Adolescents exhibited a repertoire of strategies to protect and promote body image. The use of these strategies by adolescents and their perceived effectiveness varied. Passive and avoidance strategies were most commonly used but were limited in terms of perceived effectiveness, while active and acceptance strategies were considered effective but were least commonly employed, especially by girls. As these active and acceptance-focused strategies are considered components of positive body image ( Holmqvist and Frisén, 2012 ), enabling adolescents to employ more active cognitive processing and reframing strategies may enhance their resilience to social media content.

Adolescents in this sample did exhibit aspects of protective filtering (as observed by Burnette et al., 2017 ), in that they were critical of the extreme natures of body ideals and attempted to psychologically distance from and reduce comparisons with these ideals. They also expressed an appreciation of body diversity on social media. However, protective filtering involves both the rejection of negative body-related messages and the endorsement of positive messages ( Andrew et al., 2015 ). Contrasting with the findings of Burnette et al. (2017) , high social media literacy levels did not always serve protective effects for body image and adolescent girls in this sample were largely unable to internalize positive body-related messages and struggled to accept/appreciate their own bodies.

Boys appeared to hold more positive perceptions of social media’s influence on body image, processed body-related content in “protective ways” and exhibited higher levels of body-acceptance than girls. Mirroring the findings of the national study of adolescent boys in the United Kingdom of Edcoms and Credos (2016) , boys in this sample were less aware of photo-editing and manipulation of images of male bodies on social media and viewed body ideals as attainable with sufficient hard work and effort. It may be the case that social media is experienced as a less pressurizing and more motivating space for boys, encouraging them to hold these more positive evaluations of social media. Alternatively, boys may have deemed it acceptable to report beliefs that body ideals were attainable and that they were not negatively affected by social media in order to adhere to masculine gender roles of self-reliance and dominance ( Gattario and Frisén, 2019 ). Boys may also be less aware of manipulation/editing strategies or less critical in perceptions of body ideal attainability and this might protect them from feelings of disempowerment and dissatisfaction when exposed to body-related content.

Nonetheless, some boys and girls reported self-criticism, self-blame, and body-dissatisfaction from social media comparisons and for perceived failures to adhere to desired body standards. Knowledge/information about body ideals did not always appear to change how individuals felt about their body image. This suggests that enhancing social media literacy and knowledge is not alone sufficient to mitigate tendencies to engage in appearance comparison and body ideal internalization behaviors and help individuals to internalize positive body-related messages. Furthermore, relying on body positive/body acceptance content to promote positive body image is also not sufficient given adolescent girls’ skepticism of this content and its ability to improve their body image perceptions.

Self-compassion approaches are purported to target and change how individuals feel about their bodies by addressing self-criticism and shame at the root of body dissatisfaction ( Gilbert and Irons, 2005 ; Gilbert, 2010 ). Instead of trying to inhibit appearance comparisons like media literacy approaches, compassion focused approaches (e.g., Neff, 2003 ; Gilbert, 2009 , 2014 ) try to reduce the self-criticism arising from comparisons – an approach, which may be particularly beneficial in light if the highly self-critical attitudes held particularly by adolescent girls about their bodies. Compassion focused approaches have been found to be effective in reducing body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, in addition to promoting body appreciation and positive body image in adults ( Braun et al., 2016 ; Rahimi-Ardabili et al., 2018 ). However, the ability of compassion-focused approaches to improve body image outcomes has not been investigated in adolescents ( Rahimi-Ardabili et al., 2018 ).

Compassion-focused approaches may be particularly useful for improving adolescent body image on social media, as they can provide individuals with the skills to reframe self-critical thoughts and enhance their resilience to negative body-related messages on social media. Self-compassion may also enable adolescents, especially girls, to internalize positive body-related messages and foster greater levels of body appreciation ( Andrew et al., 2016 ). They therefore represent a new and potentially promising alternative for tackling body image concerns in adolescents.

Limitations

Although this study sought to capture a diversity of viewpoints by recruiting from heterogenous schools that differed in terms of school status (private vs. public) and school size (medium-large and small), the sample size of this study was small which limits the transferability of the findings. Furthermore, very few boys participated in the study, which further limits the conclusions that can be made about social media’s influence on their body image perceptions. Due to study, time pressures a pragmatic decision was made to proceed with the analysis and write-up with the imbalanced gender split. This difficulty in recruiting male participants has been noted in the research in this area, and it may be indicative of male stigma around body image and a reluctance among adolescents to discuss it as a topic ( Griffiths et al., 2014 ; Edcoms and Credos, 2016 ). Future research needs to identify ways of circumventing this stigma and encouraging boys to discuss body image and social media, because far less is known about adolescent boys’ experiences of social media and body image vs. girls, despite the finding that body dissatisfaction is a prevalent and problematic issue among boys and one that is influenced by social media use ( Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019 ).

The focus group design may have influenced participant’s responses such that they may have provided socially desirable answers that may not have reflected personal opinions, or their opinions may have been swayed by or suppressed because of dominant members of the group. 2 This may be particularly true of boys, who are less likely to disclose body image concerns because of social norms, which dictate that body image is not an issue for males ( Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2006 ; Yager et al., 2013 ). Furthermore, as the focus groups were conducted by female researchers only, boys may have been reluctant to discuss gender differences related to body image ( Allen, 2005 ), while girls, may have been more expressive of their concerns because they tend to prefer same-sex female facilitators ( Yager et al., 2013 ).

Some adolescents, especially girls, indicated that social media led them to feel dissatisfied with their bodies. Boys and girls appeared to employ different strategies to manage to address the gender-specific challenges they encountered online. Boys appeared to exhibit more agency and active coping strategies, which contrasted with girls who were less optimistic about their ability to control social media outcomes and who struggled to interpret body-related information in a positive, self-protective way. Future research should examine these gender differences in larger samples across diverse contexts.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

CM conceived, planned, and carried out the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript with input from DH, who was involved in the planning and supervision of the study. Both the authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial and not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge colleagues Ms. Selin Akkol-Solakoglu who assisted with focus groups and Ms. Molly Light who assisted with inter-rater agreements and the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin for their support.

1. ^ We wish to thank a reviewer of the paper for highlighting this issue.

2. ^ We would like to thank the reviewer for highlighting that demand characteristics may have influenced participant responses such that respondents are likely to just go with the theme of the questions, rather than spontaneously come to the conclusion that social media influences them in negative ways.

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Keywords: body image, adolescent(s), social media, body dissatisfaction, positive body image, coping strategies

Citation: Mahon C and Hevey D (2021) Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping. Front. Psychol . 12:626763. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626763

Received: 06 November 2020; Accepted: 19 April 2021; Published: 21 May 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Mahon and Hevey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Ciara Mahon, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Research Directions in Social Media and Body Image

• Feminist Forum Commentary
• Published: 02 November 2014
• Volume 71 , pages 407–413, ( 2014 )

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• Julie L. Andsager 1  

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This commentary in response to Perloff ( 2014 ) suggests considerations for studying social media’s potential influence on body image. These are derived from Perloff’s transactional model of social media and body image. In investigating how social media use may influence body dissatisfaction in the United States, scholars should consider how the purposes and functions of social media differentiate them from traditional media effects theories. Individuals may be more likely to encounter unsought messages in social media than in traditional media. Social media messages have the potential to present much more diverse representations of female and male bodies because they are mostly produced and disseminated by individuals. Finally, social media offer the ability to reach a variety of at-risk groups with media literacy training. Media literacy training educates audiences about the purposes of messages, which can increase skepticism and possibly reduce message effects. Thus, media literacy training may address the media-related aspect of body dissatisfaction because it teaches critical and analytical skills. Theoretically driven models such as Perloff’s transactional model of social media and body image provide a fruitful basis of research.

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Andsager, J.L. Research Directions in Social Media and Body Image. Sex Roles 71 , 407–413 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-014-0430-4

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Social Media Use and Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Thin- and Muscular-Ideal Internalisation

An t. vuong.

1 College of Health and Biomedicine, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia; [email protected]

2 School of Psychology & Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia; [email protected]

Hannah K. Jarman

Jo r. doley.

3 Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia; [email protected]

Siân A. McLean

Associated data.

Data are available from authors upon reasonable request.

Internalisation of appearance ideals moderates the relationship between exposure to media images and body dissatisfaction. To date, the role of thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation in the context of social media remains under explored, particularly for boys. As such, we aimed to explore how social media use (Instagram and Snapchat) was related to body dissatisfaction, and whether thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation would moderate this relationship in a sample of 1153 adolescent boys and girls (55.42% males; M age = 13.71, SD = 1.14). As hypothesised, social media use, and thin- and muscular ideal internalisation were positively correlated with body dissatisfaction in both genders. In moderation analyses, thin-ideal internalisation emerged as the only variable that had a significant effect on body dissatisfaction in both genders. Additionally, the influence of social media use on body dissatisfaction was moderated by muscular-ideal internalisation in boys, whereby for boys with high muscular-ideal internalisation, greater social media use was associated with greater body dissatisfaction. The two-way (muscular x thin-ideal internalisation) and three-way interaction (social media use x thin-ideal internalisation x muscular-ideal internalisation) effects on body dissatisfaction were non-significant. These findings emphasise the importance of considering the sociocultural environment (i.e., new media influences) as frameworks for understanding body dissatisfaction and suggest targeting of internalisation of appearance ideals in body dissatisfaction prevention programs.

1. Introduction

Body dissatisfaction, the negative self-evaluation of one’s appearance [ 1 ], is experienced across the lifespan, but adolescence is a period of particular vulnerability [ 2 ]. An emerging factor relevant to body dissatisfaction in adolescence is social media use, which has been found to predict increases in body dissatisfaction among girls and boys [ 3 ]. However, social media does not affect body dissatisfaction to the same degree in all young people and individual characteristics may affect the extent to which social media use is associated with body dissatisfaction. One such factor is the internalisation of appearance ideals that promote thinness in females and muscularity in males [ 4 , 5 ]. Emerging evidence suggests that mass media can be highly influential as it may lead adolescents to internalise Western societal ideals about physical attractiveness and beauty, resulting in dissatisfaction with their own appearance when they are unable to mirror these standards [ 6 , 7 ], yet this remains unexamined in the context of social media. Despite being active social media users as well as undergoing a critical period that puts them at greater risk for body dissatisfaction [ 8 , 9 ], there is presently a lack of research of this nature among adolescents. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by examining how social media use (Instagram and Snapchat) is related to adolescents’ body dissatisfaction, and whether thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation would moderate this relationship.

Adolescence is an important period for body dissatisfaction. Many adolescents are highly invested in their appearance and are vulnerable to the development of body image concerns [ 8 , 10 ]. Adolescents begin to demonstrate declines in body esteem (i.e., appearance and weight satisfaction) at 13 years of age [ 11 ] and this persists throughout mid-adolescence [ 12 , 13 ]. A high proportion of boys (50%) and girls (74%) at age 14 have been found to want to modify something about their body [ 14 ]. The prevalence of body dissatisfaction in adolescents is concerning given that it has been found to prospectively predict negative physical and psychological health outcomes such as depression, poor self-esteem, and eating disorders [ 2 , 15 ]. Body dissatisfaction has also been shown to predict engagement in risky body-change behaviours such as supplement use, excessive exercise, muscle-gaining strategies, and restrictive dieting practices among adolescents [ 16 , 17 ].

Although body dissatisfaction has been observed to be more normative and profound in adolescent girls compared to boys [ 18 , 19 ], new evidence suggests that it is becoming a considerable issue among both genders [ 20 , 21 ]. However, the nature of body dissatisfaction experienced by girls and by boys tends to differ in that concerns expressed by girls typically focus on attaining a thin appearance ideal, whereas boys’ appearance ideal tends to be lean and muscular [ 22 ]. Similarly, boys tend to place more value on their functional abilities (e.g., physical qualities and strength) whereas girls tend to be more invested in the aesthetic qualities of their outward appearance [ 23 ]. Thus, it follows that weight gain has been frequently reported as a body change strategy among adolescent boys while weight reduction strategies such as dieting are more common among adolescent girls [ 24 , 25 ]. As a result, external influences on body dissatisfaction and personal characteristics that may mitigate those influences could differ for boys and for girls, so more research is required to discern the factors that contribute to body dissatisfaction in both groups.

Sociocultural models of the development of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, such as the tripartite influence model [ 26 ] and the dual pathway model [ 27 ] provide a framework to guide understanding of factors relevant to the development of body dissatisfaction. According to these models, appearance pressures that emanate from peers, family, and media (the latter being the focus of the present study) and psychological processes (e.g., appearance-ideal internalisation and social comparisons) contribute to the emergence and maintenance of body dissatisfaction. Subsequently, body dissatisfaction leads to risk factors for disordered eating (e.g., dieting and negative affect) and in turn, the onset of bulimic pathology. In relation to media, social media use is becoming highly relevant for young adolescents compared with traditional media, with Instagram and Snapchat used more frequently than other platforms [ 28 ]. Over the past decade, the total number of hours per day that early adolescents devoted to social media had risen and the percentage of those who used social media on a daily basis had almost doubled [ 29 ]. Therefore, investigating the influence of social media, rather than traditional media, on body dissatisfaction may be more reflective of the media environment in which adolescents are engaged.

Social media sites, particularly Instagram and Snapchat, allow opportunities for users to share and view visual content that can be digitally retouched to reflect beauty ideals [ 30 ]. Given that these platforms involve behaviours such as commenting and liking, adolescents can become fixated on how they present themselves and are enticed to post pictures that conform to appearance ideals in hopes of gaining approval from others [ 31 , 32 ]. Thus, the highly visual nature of social media stimuli means that adolescents are constantly exposed to unrealistic appearance ideals when engaging with peers and celebrities, which may heighten their body dissatisfaction levels [ 33 , 34 ]. As cultivation theory suggests [ 35 ], frequent engagement with social media content may prompt negative behaviours and attitudes about society’s ideal appearance due to regular and repeated exposure [ 31 , 34 ]. Empirical evidence supports this contention whereby positive relationships between social media use (especially highly visual platforms) and body dissatisfaction have been identified in pre to late adolescent boys and girls [ 36 , 37 ]. Interestingly, specific online behaviours (e.g., “likes” received and selfie-posting) had no significant impact on body dissatisfaction even when controlling for BMI and gender [ 37 ]. Thereby, narrowing the focus of general social media use to appearance-focused platforms seems appropriate [ 21 , 38 ]. Despite gender differences regarding social media behaviours (posting, commenting, and liking), boys are equally prolific users who are also subject to idealised imagery [ 28 , 39 ]. Social media use also heightens opportunities for boys to make appearance comparisons, subsequently increasing their levels of body dissatisfaction [ 40 ]. Notably, these recent observations stress that boys who use social media are just as vulnerable as girls to negative body image.

In addition, sociocultural models also specify a role for internalisation of appearance ideals, that is, the endorsement of and aspiration to achieve Western appearance standards (e.g., thinness in females and muscularity in males), in the transmission of sociocultural appearance pressures to body dissatisfaction. In this manner, individuals who internalise appearance ideals, such as those presented in social media, are more likely to experience body dissatisfaction when they find they cannot attain the typically unrealistic appearance ideals promoted by these sources [ 41 ]. Meta-analytic work has illustrated that media exposure reinforces appearance-ideal internalisation and this can affect both genders of all ages, although adolescents were the most at risk [ 42 ]. Similarly, the association between appearance-ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction does not significantly differ across gender but the magnitude of this relationship was more profound in younger than older individuals [ 43 ]. Such findings allude to the importance of mixed-gender studies and research in adolescents who are most vulnerable, hence the focus of this study.

There are two ways internalisation has been conceptualised in the relationship between media exposure and body dissatisfaction; baseline trait internalisation as a moderator and change in trait internalisation as a mediator [ 5 ]. Recently, considerable research has examined internalisation as a mediator in adults [ 44 , 45 , 46 ] and adolescents [ 47 ] but fewer studies have examined internalisation as a moderator in the context of social media use. In this regard, internalisation (baseline) as a moderator will be the focus of this paper in that higher internalisation is expected to strengthen the negative influence of media imagery on body image and this detrimental effect is expected to diminish with lower internalisation levels [ 48 , 49 ].

As described, appearance ideals may reflect either the thin or muscular body type. Traditionally, thin-ideal internalisation has been examined in the domain of female body image and empirical findings have demonstrated well-established associations between these concepts among girls. For example, greater thin-ideal internalisation has been associated with greater body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls [ 7 , 50 ] and has also been recognised as a prospective predictor of body dissatisfaction among young adolescent girls [ 51 ]. Although thin-ideal internalisation could also be relevant to adolescent boys given research indicating that they desire to look lean with low body fat [ 52 , 53 ], research among boys is somewhat limited to date and findings are conflicting. Some studies found that thin-ideal internalisation did not predict body dissatisfaction in boys [ 54 , 55 ]. However, one study found that internalised thin ideals in the media increased men’s body dissatisfaction [ 56 ].

In parallel to thin-ideal internalisation, muscular-ideal internalisation has commonly been perceived as more relevant to males than females. This relevance is demonstrated in research findings among adolescent boys whereby those who highly internalised the muscular/athletic ideal were more dissatisfied with their bodies than those who did not [ 55 , 57 ]. There is also empirical support for muscular-ideal internalisation as a moderator between media exposure and body dissatisfaction. Boys who highly endorsed masculine gender roles regarding muscularity and strength were more vulnerable to negative mass media effects (magazines and advertisements) as inferred by their higher body-change desires and drives for muscularity [ 58 , 59 ].

Despite the traditional focus on males, research has also begun to explore muscular-ideal internalisation among females. Initial evidence suggested that muscular-ideal internalisation was not detrimental to women’s body image [ 60 ]. However, with the advent of social media movements such as ‘fitspiration’, whereby thin and toned images are accompanied by text that motivates acquisition of the fit ideal appearance, an unrealistically muscular appearance is now an element of the female appearance ideal [ 61 , 62 ]. Thus, muscular-ideal internalisation may be more relevant and potentially be associated with body image in both girls and boys. Emerging evidence has indicated that media exposure to muscular ideal imagery predicts greater body dissatisfaction and drives for both thinness and muscularity in females [ 55 , 63 ]. Furthermore, muscular-ideal internalisation has also been found to be positively associated with muscle building behaviours in boys and girls, indicating the relevance of this form of internalisation for adolescents regardless of gender [ 47 ]. In light of the changing social media environment promoting both thin and muscular ideals, further research examining both thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation may provide a more complete picture of the underlying mechanisms that shape body dissatisfaction in both girls and boys.

Taken together, much of the existing research on internalisation as a moderator has been confined to adult samples and revolves around typical appearance attributes (i.e., thin-ideal internalisation in females and muscular-ideal internalisation in males) [ 48 , 58 , 59 , 64 ]. Therefore, the overarching aim of the current study was to add to past research and explore the relationships between social media use (Instagram and Snapchat), thin-ideal internalisation, muscular-ideal internalisation, and body dissatisfaction in adolescents. In both girls and boys, it was hypothesised that (1) social media use, thin-ideal internalisation, and muscular-ideal internalisation would be positively associated with body dissatisfaction, and (2) thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation would individually moderate the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction. Specifically, a stronger association between social media use and body dissatisfaction would be demonstrated for those with high levels of internalisation compared to those with low levels. In exploratory moderation analyses, we aimed to test the effects of a 2-way interaction (between thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation) and a 3-way interaction (between thin-ideal internalisation, muscular-ideal internalisation, and social media use) on body dissatisfaction. No specific assumptions were formed for these exploratory aims.

2.1. Participants

The initial sample comprised 1200 adolescents from grades 7 to 10 in two independent, co-educational high schools in Melbourne, Australia, who were recruited to take part in a longitudinal study of body dissatisfaction and well-being in adolescence over 1-year. For the present study, data from the first wave of data collection were analysed. Inclusion criteria were that participants had a social media account or profile and identified as either male or female. Following exclusion, data from 1153 (males n = 665; females n = 488) participants were included in analyses ( n = 306, n = 266, n = 405, and n = 176 in grades 7, 8, 9, and 10, respectively). Participants’ ages ranged from 11 to 17 years ( M age = 13.71, SD = 1.14). Their BMI (kg/m 2 ) ranged from 11.02 to 57.81 ( M BMI = 19.89, SD = 3.68) and, in line with World Health Organization cut-offs for BMI-for-age z-scores [ 65 ], the BMI of the majority of participants was classified as ‘normal’ weight (80.22%), with 9.89% ‘overweight’, 8.27% ‘underweight’, and 1.62% ‘obese’. Most participants were born in Australian/New Zealand (83.5%), followed by Asia (9.2%), Europe (4.7%), and other (2.6%).

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. demographic information.

Participants were asked to indicate their age, gender, and country of birth.

2.2.2. Social Media Use

To assess social media use, respondents were asked to specify how often they used two appearance-related social media sites (Snapchat and Instagram) on a 5-point scale (1 = never to 5 = always ). A mean score was calculated, with higher scores indicating greater frequency of social media use. Another study used a similar approach to measure the frequency of social media use [ 66 ]. Use of Snapchat and Instagram were included in analyses due to high popularity amongst adolescents in western cultures, being highly image-centric, and having been associated with body image concerns [ 67 ].

2.2.3. Thin-Ideal Internalisation

The Thin/Low Body Fat subscale of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance-4 Scale (SATAQ-4) was used to assess thin-ideal internalisation [ 68 ]. This measure assesses the degree to which individuals endorse or strive towards the thin body ideal. On a 5-point Likert scale (1 = definitely disagree to 5 = definitely agree ), participants rated how much they agreed with five items (e.g., “I want my body to look very lean (e.g., like celebrities and models)”). Mean scores were calculated with higher scores indicating greater thin-ideal internalisation. In this study, the internal consistency was high for boys (α = 0.89) and girls (α = 0.92).

2.2.4. Muscular-Ideal Internalisation

The Internalisation-Muscular subscale of the SATAQ-4 assessed muscular-ideal internalisation [ 69 ]. This subscale measures the extent to which individuals internalise or strive towards the muscular body ideal. On a 5-point Likert scale (1 = definitely disagree to 5 = definitely agree ), participants rated how strongly they agreed with four statements (e.g., “I think a lot about looking muscular (e.g., like sports stars and fitspiration posts)”). The mean score was calculated whereby higher scores indicate greater internalisation of the muscular body ideal. For this sample, the internal consistency was high for boys (α = 0.93) and girls (α = 0.93).

2.2.5. Body Dissatisfaction

The appearance subscale of the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) was used as an index of body dissatisfaction [ 70 ]. Although it traditionally assesses an individual’s global appraisal of their outward appearance, it has been empirically linked to body dissatisfaction [ 71 ] and has been used as a broad indicator of body dissatisfaction elsewhere [ 72 , 73 ]. Participants were asked to indicate how true ten statements were for them on a 5-point scale (1 = never to 5 = always ). Example items include, “I wish I looked like someone else” and “I feel ashamed of how I look”. Positively-worded items (e.g., “I like what I look like in pictures”) were reverse scored. The mean score was calculated with higher scores indicating greater body dissatisfaction. For the current study, the internal consistency was high for boys (α = 0.88) and girls (α = 0.92).

2.3. Procedures

The study was approved by the university’s Human Ethics Committee (approval number: HED18424). Written informed consent procedures were implemented in which parents had the option to opt their child out of participation. Prior to the commencement of the survey, the research team gave verbal instructions and written informed active assent was obtained from all participants. Participants completed the online survey independently in classroom settings, supervised by researchers. The survey took approximately 30 min to complete and contained approximately 150 items. At the end of the questionnaire, students were invited to provide height and weight measurements. If students wished to provide their measurements, they could either provide an estimate, or use height and weight equipment which had been set up and facilitated in a private area by a member of the research team.

2.4. Data Analysis

SPSS 26 (IBM Corp: Armonk, NY, USA) and Mplus 8.0 (Muthen & Muthen: Los Angeles, CA, USA) were used for data analyses. Consistent with research in adolescents of a similar nature [ 67 ], missing data across each outcome variable was moderate (8–12%). Little’s missing completely at random (MCAR) test [ 74 ] indicated that the data were missing completely at random ( p > 0.05). Data were not normally distributed so non-parametric alternatives were used for preliminary analysis. Mann-Whitney U Tests were conducted to examine gender differences on study variables and Spearman correlations were performed to determine zero-order relationships between variables. Effect sizes were evaluated according to recommendations by Khalilzadeh and Tasci [ 75 ]. Preliminary frequency and descriptive analyses were also performed.

Moderated multiple regression analyses were run to test whether thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation moderated the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction. A Maximum Likelihood Robust estimator was used which adjusts the standard errors and chi-square statistic for non-normality [ 76 ]. Continuous two-way and three-way interaction terms were calculated using mean-centred variables and were included as predictors of body dissatisfaction. To interpret the moderating effects, simple slopes were then plotted for significant interactions for the relationship between the independent variable (social media use) and the dependent variable (body dissatisfaction) when the levels of the moderator variable (thin-ideal and/or muscular-ideal internalisation) was one standard deviation above and below the mean. Finally, the significance of the slopes was tested [ 77 ] which denotes the simple effect of social media use on body dissatisfaction at two levels (high and low) of thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation. All analyses were performed separately for girls and boys.

3.1. Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics for all measures are reported in Table 1 . Both girls and boys reported moderate levels of social media use, thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation, and body dissatisfaction. However, girls reported significantly higher social media use, thin-ideal internalization, and body dissatisfaction, and lower muscular-ideal internalization than boys. The majority of participants used Instagram (90.89%) and Snapchat (90.72%). As shown in Figure 1 , both girls and boys predominantly used Instagram and Snapchat “often”. A low proportion of participants “never” or “rarely” used Instagram. Similarly, a low proportion of participants “rarely” used Snapchat.

Frequency of social media site use among adolescent girls and boys.

Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD) and Gender Differences in Social Media and Body Image Variables.

Note . Girls n = 488, boys n = 665.

3.2. Correlations

As shown in Table 2 , Spearman correlations indicated that social media use, thin-ideal internalisation, and muscular-ideal internalisation were positively and significantly correlated with body dissatisfaction. There were also positive correlations between social media use and thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation, except for the relationship between social media use and muscular-ideal internalisation in girls. In both girls and boys, correlations between all variables were small, apart from the large correlation between thin-ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction in girls.

Spearman Correlations between Social Media Use, Thin-Ideal Internalisation, Muscular-Ideal Internalisation and Body Dissatisfaction, in Boys and Girls.

Note . Correlations above the diagonal line are for girls (n = 488). Correlations below the diagonal line are for boys (n = 665). * p < 0.05 (two-tailed), ** p < 0.01 (two-tailed).

3.3. Moderation Analyses

Moderated multiple regression analyses examined cross-sectional predictors of body dissatisfaction and tested whether thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation moderated the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction. For girls, there was a positive main effect of thin-ideal internalisation on body dissatisfaction (β = 0.600, p < 0.001) but there was no main effect of muscular-ideal internalisation on body dissatisfaction (β = 0.020, p = 0.642). There was also no main effect of social media use on body dissatisfaction (β = 0.054, p = 0.267). None of the interaction terms were significant (social media use x muscular-ideal internalisation: β = 0.001, p = 0.984; social media use x thin-ideal internalisation: β = −0.044, p = 0.385; muscular-ideal internalisation x thin-ideal internalisation: β = −0.017, p = 0.694; and social media use x thin-ideal internalisation x muscular-ideal internalisation: β = 0.015, p = 0.761).

For boys, thin-ideal internalisation had a positive main effect on body dissatisfaction (β = 0.240, p < 0.001) but there was no main effect of muscular-ideal internalisation on body dissatisfaction (β = −0.021, p = 0.707). There was also no main effect of social media use on body dissatisfaction (β = 0.037, p = 0.384). The interaction between social media use and muscular-ideal internalisation was positively associated with body dissatisfaction (β = 0.124, p = 0.006), however the interaction between social media use and thin-ideal internalisation was not significant (β = −0.020, p = 0.654), nor was the interaction between muscular- and thin-ideal internalisation (β = 0.018, p = 0.734). The three-way social media use x thin-ideal internalisation x muscular-ideal internalisation interaction was not significant and demonstrated a small effect among boys (β = 0.100, p = 0.055).

Simple slopes tests were conducted in boys to follow-up the significant interaction effect which revealed that muscular-ideal internalisation moderated the effect of social media use on body dissatisfaction for boys, such that a relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction was evident only at high levels of muscular-ideal internalisation, but not low levels (see Figure 2 ). Specifically, for boys with high muscular-ideal internalisation, higher social media use was associated with greater body dissatisfaction (β = 0.116, p = 0.005). For boys with low muscular-ideal internalisation, there was no relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction (β = −0.063, p = 0.202). These results provide partial support for our hypotheses.

The two-way interaction effect of muscular-ideal internalisation and social media use on body dissatisfaction in boys.

4. Discussion

The aim of the present study was to broaden current understandings of relationships between social media use, thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation, and body dissatisfaction. The first hypothesis, that appearance-related social media use would be positively and significantly associated with body dissatisfaction in girls and boys, was supported. This is consistent with previous findings in Western samples [ 36 , 67 ] and consolidates the small body of literature that has examined this relationship in boys [ 38 ]. Additionally, thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation were positively and significantly correlated with body dissatisfaction in girls and boys which is consistent with prior research [ 78 , 79 , 80 ]. As adolescents are now faced with the unhealthy standard of the ‘strong’ and ‘skinny’ paradox on social media [ 81 ], it is unsurprising that those who endorse such ideals also experience body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, these results underscore the importance of athletic-ideal internalisation, a novel construct that entails both muscularity and thinness [ 68 ], in the prediction of body concerns (regarding weight/shape and muscularity) in both males and females [ 55 ].

In the multiple regression models in girls, thin-ideal internalisation emerged as the only variable that was significantly associated with body dissatisfaction. This adds to the mounting evidence that thin–ideal internalisation is problematic for girls’ body image [ 50 , 57 , 82 , 83 ]. Unexpectedly, neither thin- or muscular-ideal internalisation moderated the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction among girls. This latter finding conflicts with literature that has highlighted a moderation effect through thin-ideal internalisation in women [ 48 , 64 ]. Given that these studies were conducted in relation to effects from traditional media and in older samples, moderation may perhaps be stronger under those circumstances rather than when tested in younger individuals in the social media environment. Nevertheless, the absence of muscular-ideal internalisation as a cross-sectional predictor of body dissatisfaction and moderation via muscular/athletic-ideal internalisation supports some work in women [ 60 , 84 , 85 ], so it is possible that internalising the muscular/athletic physique does not have as strong an effect on body dissatisfaction as thin-ideal internalisation. Further investigation is needed to clarify these mixed findings.

In the multiple regression models in boys, thin-ideal internalisation emerged as the only variable that had a positive main effect on body dissatisfaction. This is in line with previous findings where thin-ideal internalisation has been shown to be related to body dissatisfaction in boys, as well as girls [ 86 ]. It should be emphasised that the measure of thin-ideal internalisation used in this study reflects endorsement of both thinness and leanness that is espoused in males currently and may be more relevant than previous measures of thin-ideal internalization that did not reflect the leanness component [ 54 , 87 ]. Notably, muscular-ideal internalisation but not thin-ideal internalisation moderated the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction in boys which partially supports our hypotheses. This extends previous research with traditional forms of media which found that those who highly endorsed the muscular ideal were more negatively affected by mass media portrayals compared to those who did not highly endorse the muscular ideal [ 58 , 59 ]. The relevance of muscular-ideal internalisation reflects modern appearance trends on social media (e.g., fitspiration posts) that emphasise hyper-muscular ideals in males [ 88 ]. As such, it may be more important for boys in the current social media environment to look muscular rather than thin, which may explain the lack of moderation through thin-ideal internalisation. Based on the findings, it appears that the interaction between social media use and internalisation is highly relevant for body dissatisfaction. For example, one study found that the internalisation-body satisfaction relationship was conditional upon the use of photo-editing apps in young adult women [ 89 ]. Further investigation is required to provide a deeper understanding of these associations in adolescents particularly in relation to temporal sequencing.

Additionally, the two-way interaction (muscular x thin-ideal internalisation) was non-significant in effect on body dissatisfaction for both girls and boys. This is similar to past research in women and suggests that incorporating thinness into that of the muscular ideal (e.g., fit-ideal internalisation) does not alter body dissatisfaction levels [ 90 ]. As previously posited [ 90 ], moderation may not have occurred because thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation are only related to body image outcomes when analysed independently rather than concurrently. More research is warranted to support these claims. Likewise, the three-way interaction (social media use x thin- x muscular-ideal internalisation) was non-significant in both girls and boys. That is, body dissatisfaction scores did not vary across the levels of these factors in their interaction, they were equivalent regardless of the interaction between frequency of social media use and tendencies of thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation. Despite approaching significance in boys at the p < 0.05 level, the effect was small relative to the other effects in boys (e.g., comparison to beta coefficients for thin-ideal internalisation and the social media use x muscular-ideal internalisation interaction). These preliminary findings offer important avenues for future research to help elucidate the conditions and personal characteristics that elevate risk and could thus be targeted in interventions to prevent the detrimental impact of social media engagement on body dissatisfaction.

Despite the contributions of this study to our knowledge of the role of social media use and internalisations in explaining body dissatisfaction, there are several limitations. First, although our narrow focus on the use of appearance-related platforms (Instagram and Snapchat) was informed by previous findings [ 37 ], it fails to address relevant photo-based behaviours such as commenting, liking, and posting pictures that have been previously associated with body dissatisfaction [ 91 , 92 , 93 ]. Future research in this direction could be valuable. Second, causality cannot be established due to the cross-sectional nature of the study and thus, experimental and longitudinal studies are warranted to identify whether combinations of social media use and internalisation of appearance ideals constitute risk for body dissatisfaction. Although this study contributes to the growing field of body image research, inclusion of other potential risk factors in sociocultural models of body image concerns such as social comparisons may also serve as an important direction for future research [ 94 , 95 ]. Finally, considering the wide age range of adolescents in our study (11–17 years), future research could incorporate age as a potential moderator.

Given the relevance of muscular-ideal internalisation as a moderator, particularly in the case for boys, there is a need for prevention programs targeted towards adolescents who may be more sensitive to the negative effect of muscularity focused appearance-related media on body dissatisfaction. Similarly, boys engaged in muscularity-focused activities, such as sports, may benefit from such intervention. In particular, dissonance-based approaches have demonstrated effectiveness in minimising appearance-ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction levels [ 96 , 97 ]. Furthermore, media-literacy programs offering education on forming critical arguments against unrealistic body ideal images in the media have demonstrated some benefits [ 49 ].

5. Conclusions

Findings from this study build upon existing research on the positive relationships between social media use and body dissatisfaction, and between thin- and muscular-ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction in adolescent boys and girls. This underscores the importance of mixed gender studies and extends the literature to adolescents. These findings also support consideration of the sociocultural environment as a framework for understanding body dissatisfaction in the new media environment and emphasise the importance of thin-ideal internalisation as a significant cross-sectional predictor of body dissatisfaction in both genders. Additionally, muscular-ideal internalisation moderated the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction in boys highlighting the centrality of muscularity to boys’ body dissatisfaction. Results suggest the need to focus on relevant concerns for boys and girls and support the use of intervention and prevention efforts that aim to lessen appearance-ideal internalisation, thereby reducing the detrimental effects of appearance-related media exposure on body dissatisfaction.

Author Contributions

Authors A.T.V., S.A.M. and H.K.J. contributed to the study conception and design. Formal analysis and investigation were performed by A.T.V. and H.K.J. with contribution from S.A.M. and J.R.D. The original draft was written by A.T.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee (Approval number: HED18424).

Informed Consent Statement

Written, informed, opt-out parental consent and active participant assent was obtained.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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