Abstract
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.
Highlights
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)
Processing Body Image on 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)
Thematic analysis revealed two key themes, and various subthemes pertaining to the management of body image on social media by adolescents
Summary
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). 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. The inferences that can be drawn regarding social media effects may 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)
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