Social Media Effects on Lifestyle Satisfaction

Summary

From magazines to Miss America, the media has consistently contributed to the spread of sociocultural beauty standards for decades. While initial research on the effects of media on body image primarily focused on magazine and television, recent research has shifted towards exploring the effects of social media due to its rapid and constant accessibility. Current research has associated the promulgation of the thin-ideal with bulimia, dieting, supplement use, negative affect, and body dissatisfaction. Literature related to thin-ideal media (thinspiration), decreased body dissatisfaction, and negative mood is robust with a common understanding that thin-ideal media instigates increased appearance comparisons to seemingly unattainable beauty standards. Literature has also suggested that depression and anxiety have increased with the growth of social media and pressure to achieve unattainable beauty. The fit-ideal, often referred to as Fitspiration, was created as an "antidote" to thin-ideal beauty standards. However, research has found that though well intended, fitspiration content continues to promote the thin-ideal and has been associated with similarly detrimental outcomes of body dissatisfaction and negative mood. Over the last decade, body image research has shifted the focus on body disturbance to examining concepts related to positive body image. However, to date there are no known studies examining the impacts of fit-ideal content versus body positive content on women's body appreciation, body satisfaction, and state mood. The purpose of the present study is to experimentally examine the impact of exposure to body positive and fitspiration Instagram content on the body satisfaction, body appreciation, and mood of undergraduate women at Arizona State University. Participants will be 90 female undergraduate students (18-29 years old) currently attending Arizona State University. Participants will be randomly allocated to view either fitspiration, body-positive, or appearance neutral Instagram images. Dependent variables including state body appreciation, state body dissatisfaction, and state mood will be measured using Visual Analogue Scales. Trait thin-ideal internalization and trait social comparison will also be measured as moderators using the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 and the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised. We hypothesize that viewing body positive content from Instagram will result in greater state body satisfaction, greater state body appreciation, and greater state positive mood compared to participants exposed to fitspiration and appearance neutral content. We also hypothesize that viewing fitspiration content from Instagram will result in greater state body dissatisfaction, decreased state body appreciation, and greater state negative mood compared to participants exposed to body positive and appearance neutral content. Short answer qualitative interview questions will also be included as an exploratory aim of this study where we intend to fill a gap in the literature regarding the specific aspects of each content topic that elicit the observed quantitative outcomes.

Conditions

• Control Group
• Social Media

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Effects of Instagram Exposure on Lifestyle Satisfaction

Participants will complete initial measures of sociodemographic information, the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale, The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised, and baseline measures of body appreciation, body satisfaction, and mood using online Visual Analogue Scales via Qualtrics. Female undergraduate students will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The Fitspiration and Body Positive groups will view a series of 15 Fitspiration or Body Positive images sourced from Instagram while the control group will view 15 interior design images sourced from Instagram. After viewing images, participants will complete posttest measures of body satisfaction, body appreciation, and mood using Visual Analogue scales. Thereafter, participants will be provided with four, brief short answer questions regarding their perspective on the images observed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Arizona State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Cheryl Der Ananian, PhD · Arizona State University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

29 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-02-03

Primary Completion

2020-02-24

Completion

2020-02-24

Countries

• United States

Study Locations