Exploring the relationship between frequency of Instagram use, exposure to idealized images, and psychological well-being in women.

Abstract

Research on the mental health effects of social networking have predominantly focused on Facebook, with limited research investigating the effects of Instagram on psychological well-being. This study aimed to address the link between Instagram use and a range of psychological variables in two parts. Participants were 129 women aged between 18 and 35 years. In Part 1, women completed a series of questionnaires related to mental health outcomes and self-perceptions. Results showed that the frequency of Instagram use is correlated with depressive symptoms, self-esteem, general and physical appearance anxiety, and body dissatisfaction and that the relationship between Instagram use and each of these variables is mediated by social comparison orientation. In Part 2, participants were exposed to a range of either beauty, fitness, or travel Instagram images (or a control condition with no images). Beauty and fitness images significantly decreased self-rated attractiveness, and the magnitude of this decrease correlated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and body dissatisfaction. Therefore, excessive Instagram use may contribute to negative psychological outcomes and poor appearance-related selfperception, in line with prior research. The research has implications for interventions and education about chronic Instagram use. Public Policy Relevance StatementInstagram has features distinctive from Facebook, making the investigation of the mental health effects of this medium worthwhile. Instagram use is correlated with a range of psychological well-being variables, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and self-esteem. Exposure to idealized images leads to a decrease in self-rated attractiveness, implying chronic exposure may impact psychological health.

Psychopathological Consequences Related to Problematic Instagram Use Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction and Moderating Role of Gender

“…As expected, PIU was positively directly associated with psychopathological symptoms among the total sample and males. This finding is in line with the literature reporting that higher frequency of Instagram use and broadcasting are associated with higher negative mood, depressive symptoms, loneliness, general anxiety, and lower self-esteem (Brown and Tiggemann 2016;Lup et al 2015;Sherlock and Wagstaff 2018;Yang 2016). Given that spending more than 2 hours a day on social media is more likely to result in higher psychological distress (Macmillan 2017), this direct effect is expected because one of the symptoms of PIU is total preoccupation with Instagram (Griffiths 2005).…”

“…Furthermore, empirical evidence specific to Instagram use has shown that Instagram broadcasting has been associated with higher loneliness which may be explained by frequent Instagram broadcasters not receiving the social support from their followers they were hoping for and feeling more isolated and lonely (Yang 2016). Frequency of Instagram use has also been correlated with elevated levels of depression, low self-esteem, and general anxiety in which individuals' proneness to compare their self-image with the images and videos of others they see on Instagram was an explanatory factor for these relationships (Sherlock and Wagstaff 2018). Another study also confirmed the negative effects of Instagram use on individuals' psychological wellbeing via reporting that spending time looking at celebrity and peer images on Instagram led to increased negative mood via state appearance comparison (Brown and Tiggemann 2016).…”

The use of social networking sites, body image dissatisfaction, and body dysmorphic disorder: A systematic review of psychological research.

“…A total of 12 studies were highlighted to identify mediating factors (Ridolfi, Myer, Crowther & Ciesla, 2011;Tiggemann & Slater, 2013;Fardouly & Varanian, 2015;Hanna, Ward, Seabrook, Jeralds, Reed, Giaccardi & Lippman, 2017;Hendrickse et al, 2017;Rousseau, Eggermont & Frison, 2017;Stapleton, Luiz & Chatwin, 2017;Wang, Wang, Gaskin & Hawk, 2017;Choukas, Bradley, Nesi, Widman & Higgins 2018;Fardouly, Willburger & Vartanian, 2018;Feltman & Szymanski, 2018;Sherlock & Wagstaff, 2018). These studies comprised of predominantly female participants and included a samples from primary school (Tiggemann & Slater, 2013), university Chouckas et al, 2018), in addition to Ozone and WeChat users (Wang, Wang, Gaskin & Hawk, 2017) and Instagram users (Sherlock & Wagstaff, 2018).…”

“…In addition to internalisation of ideals and appearance comparisons, self-esteem was also found as a mediator in body image dissatisfaction, and was often a co-mediator with comparison. A recent study by Sherlock and Wagstaff (2018) was conducted in two parts, consisting of both a correlational design and a mixed design. It demonstrated that heavier…”

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on social network sites use, body image disturbances and self-esteem among adolescents and young women

“…Given the mandated social isolation, the use of social media might have increased during lockdown (Cellini, Canale, Mioni and Costa 2020), and it has been suggested that the use of social networks, especially an appearance-focused use, is linked to body dissatisfaction (Cohen, Newton-John and Slater 2017; Fardouly and Vartanian 2016;Holland and Tiggemann 2016;Sherlock and Wagstaff 2019) and low self-esteem (Liu and Baumeister 2016;Woods and Scott 2016).…”