ArticleFrontiers in psychology2023
Social media and body dissatisfaction in young adults: An experimental investigation of the effects of different image content and influencing constructs.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Parasocial Engagement With Social Media Influencers and Mental Health Outcomes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Dietary Patterns, Eating Disorder Risk, Emotional Distress, and Amino Acid Intake in Adults Seeking Weight Loss.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Beyond social media users and game players: patterns of digital media use and their association with personality traits.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Gender differences in gaze patterns to Instagram influencer body parts: predicted by subjective body image perception and negative affect.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Adolescent Health and Generative AI-Risks and Benefits.JAMA pediatrics · 2026Article
- Investigating the relationship between social media exposure, body image dissatisfaction, and self-compassion in adolescent athlete.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A path model linking emotion regulation difficulties to disturbed eating and compensatory behavior in young females.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Seasonal body image dissatisfaction: a bi-hemispheric panel analysis of social media users across 4 years.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2025Article
- Impact of body-positive social media content on body image perception.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Nutritional Knowledge, Physical Activity, Mood, Body Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction in Vegetarians and Nonvegetarians.Journal of nutrition and metabolism · 2025Article
- Emotional Distress and Body Dissatisfaction: The Mediating Role of Social Media and Emotional Regulation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Validation of the translated Negative Physical Self Scale in a sample of Asian women living in Canada.PloS one · 2024Article
- Psychological correlates of body dissatisfaction in Swiss youth over a one-year study-period.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Body dissatisfaction and smartphone addiction: the mediation role of intrusive imagery and fear of negative evaluation.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Research shows negative correlations between media exposure of body images in the context of hegemonic beauty ideals and body satisfaction. The present study deals with the underlying mechanisms and the effects of different exposure contents. In the online experimental study, a sample consisting of 226 individuals (82.3% female, 17.7% male) received a three-minute exposure to Instagram images of women and men in the context of either hegemonic beauty ideals in the experimental group or body diversity in the control group. A conducted Mixed ANOVA with repeated measures showed significant group differences, including an increase in body dissatisfaction in the experimental group and a reduction in the control group after exposure. Statistically significant detrimental effects of exposure to images in the experimental group on women's state mood as well as descriptive similar tendencies on men's state mood were found. Moderating effects of the tendency to make upward social comparisons and the internalization of the gender-specific beauty ideal on the relationship between exposure content and the change scores of body dissatisfaction were found. Furthermore, a mediation model was calculated to investigate the effect of exposure content on post-measurement of body dissatisfaction, using the constructs "comparison processes regarding sexual attractiveness" and "assessment of one's own sexual attractiveness" as mediators. The model did not yield significant mediation, although significant relationships were found between the model components. Exploratory analyses were conducted on the influence of the assessment of one's own sexual attractiveness on related social comparisons and the intensity of engagement with Instagram content as a predictor of body dissatisfaction. The results highlight the relevance for psychoeducational purposes of addressing a critical engagement with depicted beauty ideals in social media. Moreover, the study proposes body diversity as an alternative content that can have a positive impact on body satisfaction, which can be actively sought during the individual Instagram user experience.
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