The Relationship Between Problematic Appearance Comparisons on Social Media, Self-Compassion and Body Dissatisfaction

Abstract

Body dissatisfaction is a prevalent and problematic issue among young adults and adolescents and can be heightened with social media use. However, little is known about precisely how social media influences the appearance comparison and body ideal internalisation mechanisms that underpin body dissatisfaction, or how to successfully counter these problematic mechanisms to reduce body dissatisfaction. This thesis sought to investigate how these mediating mechanisms operate on social media and use these findings to inform the design of a social media-focused intervention to counter body dissatisfaction. Firstly, qualitative focus groups explored the body ideal internalisation and appearance comparison processes engaged with by with young adults and adolescents on social media. Findings were used to develop a psychometric tool the 'Appearance Comparisons on Social Media Scale' (ACSMS), which was validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in a large sample of young adults using cross-sectional and prospective designs. Results indicated that social media?s unique content and affordances increased problematic appearance comparisons with upward, contrastive targets, widened perceived discrepancies between one?s own body and that of body ideals and resulted in self-critical evaluations and body dissatisfaction, especially in adolescents and women. Compassion-focused approaches which target self-criticism are promising for addressing body dissatisfaction; however, they have not been extensively investigated in adolescents or in social media context where they may be of most benefit. A novel five-week intervention, grounded in Gilbert?s (2010) Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) and adapted to address body image concerns in the social media context, was developed and administered to adolescent boys and girls (14-17 years) in Irish secondary schools. A mixed methods quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the Digital SMART intervention versus a wait list control. Although no significant differences in outcome measures were observed at post-intervention in intention to treat analyses, improvements in body satisfaction were observed at three-month follow up. The programme was feasible and mostly acceptable and was qualitatively reported by some girls to improve body image and outcomes of social media use. Although this indicates the potential utility of self-compassion in improving adolescent body image, further research is warranted. Study implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.