Comparisons to picture-perfect motherhood: How Instagram's idealized portrayals of motherhood affect new mothers' well-being

Abstract

Social media has drastically increased the amount of parenting content that mothers encounter in their day-to-day lives. Among this content is an abundance of idealized portrayals of motherhood, which may be putting increased pressure on mothers and negatively affecting their mental health. This study was designed to provide evidence that new mothers make comparisons to motherhood portrayals on social media and that exposure to idealized portrayals can have harmful effects. In an online experiment, 464 new mothers (i.e., mothers with a child 3 years old or younger) in the United States were exposed to 20 Instagram posts portraying motherhood that varied in idealization (i.e., idealized vs. non-idealized portrayal) and source (i.e., posted by a mommy influencer vs. an everyday mother). The mothers then responded to measures including state social comparison, perceived similarity, envy, and state anxiety. The findings illustrate that new mothers make greater social comparisons and perceive more similarity to portrayals that are non-idealized (vs. idealized) and to portrayals that are from everyday social media mothers (vs. mommy influencers). Regardless of the source (everyday mother or mommy influencer), idealized posts cause significantly higher levels of envy and state anxiety, which may be detrimental to mothers’ mental health.