Edited by: Nicola Bruno, University of Parma, Italy
Reviewed by: Christopher J. Ferguson, Stetson University, United States; Alessandro Soranzo, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
This article was submitted to Human-Media Interaction, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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 (
Body dissatisfaction, defined as “a person’s negative thoughts and feelings about his/her body” (
While the causes of body dissatisfaction are considered multifaceted, and include biological, evolutionary, psychological and sociocultural factors (
Nonetheless, concurring with previous systematic reviews (e.g.,
Sociocultural theories of body image, such as the Tripartite model (
Social media are highly visual, appearance focused platforms that extend opportunities to engage in these body dissatisfaction-inducing behaviors (
Consistent with the Tripartite model, comparisons with celebrities, sports stars, and peers who embody these ideals on social media have been reported by adolescents to give rise to feelings of body dissatisfaction (
Some studies suggest that girls’ body image perceptions are more strongly and negatively impacted by social media because they engage with and invest more in body-related content than boys (
Although appearance-related behaviors on social media have been suggested as a risk factor for body image (
Additionally, while studies have investigated ways to protect and promote adolescent body image in general, social media is a unique sociocultural context that may require specific strategies to help improve body image (
Only one qualitative study (to the authors’ awareness) with 38 female adolescents aged 12–14 years has explored protective and promotive coping strategies used by adolescents on social media (
Protective filtering is an aspect of positive body image that involves selectively internalizing messages that promote positive body image and rejecting negative body-related information (
It is also not known whether aspects of social media content may help encourage protective filtering; “body acceptance” and “body positive” messages have recently propagated the social media space and have been lauded by adult women as a promising way to buffer against problematic idealized content and decrease body dissatisfaction (
Furthermore, little is known about the strategies that adolescent boys use to protect and promote body image. To the authors’ awareness no study has investigated self-protective strategies used by adolescent boys on social media. This reflects a traditional research focus on female body image, as men/boys were thought to be less impacted by body-related issues (
This qualitative study explored adolescents’ processing and protective filtering of social media content and whether these strategies were perceived to provide protective benefits for body image. Both adolescent boys and girls were included in the study because little is known about coping or management strategies used, especially by boys, to address gender-specific issues on social media. This study aimed to inform intervention and prevention efforts in the area of body image on social media.
Focus groups investigated how adolescents managed challenging body-related content and promoted positive body image on social media. Focus groups were used because they provide a rich and ecologically valid insight into the opinions and lived experiences of participants in their own words and from their own perspectives (
Focus groups were guided using an interview schedule, which asked adolescents about their experiences and perceptions of body image on social media, the appearance-related challenges they faced on social media and the ways they manage these challenges. The results presented below will focus on adolescents’ management of challenging appearance-related content on social media, however; a brief outline of adolescents’ perceptions/experiences of social media will be provided to contextualize adolescents’ coping strategies. Given the exploratory nature of the research, conversations were allowed to flow freely, and the researcher was free to pursue related topics if they were mentioned.
A convenience sample of 29 participants, 23 girls, and 6 boys, aged between 15 and 16 years (
Composition and duration of adolescent focus groups.
Group | Gender | School | Size | Duration (min) | Age M (SD) [Range] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Female | 1 | 8 | 39.57 | 15.38 (0.52) [15–16] |
2 | Male | 1 | 6 | 32.23 | 15.33 (0.52) [15–16] |
3 | Female | 1 | 6 | 32.35 | 15.16 (0.41) [15–16] |
4 | Female | 2 | 9 | 49.49 | 15.33 (0.50) [15–16] |
Focus groups were audio recorded using an Olympus WS853 voice recorder and qualitative analysis software, MAXQDA (Version 2018.1) was used to analyze the data. The interview schedule included questions such as; (1) What social media activities/behaviors do you think help/harm body image perceptions? (2) What characteristics of social media platforms promote positive body image/negatively impact body image? and (3) How do you manage challenging appearance-focused content on social media?
Full ethical approval was received from the ethics committee at Trinity College Dublin. Permission from school principals was obtained to allow the study to be hosted in schools and for students to participate in the study. Informed consent from parents and informed assent from participants was obtained prior to study commencement. Focus groups were conducted on the school premises and participants were assigned to focus groups based on their class group. Participants’ gender, age, and school attended were obtained in demographic questionnaires that participants completed prior to the focus groups. Focus groups were conducted by two female researchers; the primary researcher led the discussion, while the secondary researcher took notes and kept track of time. Focus groups lasted approximately 30–50 min and participants were offered refreshments, thanked and debriefed afterward.
Focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim by the primary researcher (CM) and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis was guided by six step procedure of
To verify whether these themes characterized the data, inter-rater agreement was conducted both on codes within the coding frame and final themes identified in the data. As recommended by
The researcher adopted a reflexive approach and acknowledged that their own biases and backgrounds shaped the data obtained and the way it was interpreted. The researcher recognized that as a white, Irish, educated woman in her mid-twenties, she could resonate with the struggles of body image and social media pressures to pursue body ideals (insider position) and could recognize that the body-related pursuits and pressures of men/boys and adolescents may differ from her own, and that adolescents’ experience of social media content and affordances may also be divergent (outsider position;
Adolescents reported that they were prolific, habitual users of social media, showing preferences for appearance focused platforms; adolescents, especially girls explicitly reported that they felt social media exerted a mostly negative influence on their body image. Girls strove to attain female body ideals, while boys largely endorsed functionality ideals; appearance comparisons tended to induce body dissatisfaction when these appearance-related goals were not met. Adolescent girls were perceived to invest more in appearance-related behaviors on social media and to experience greater levels body-related pressure, dissatisfaction and self-criticism than boys. Appearance comparisons with peers, social media influencers, and celebrities were identified as the main sources of body dissatisfaction on social media. Thematic analysis revealed two key themes, and various subthemes pertaining to the management of body image on social media by adolescents.
Adolescents reported using avoidant strategies and unfollowing content that contained body-ideals and reducing their social media use. Female 22 “
Avoiding social comparisons was emphasized as a core strategy to protect body image. However, some participants felt that avoidance strategies were limited in their effectiveness because it was difficult evade appearance comparisons as body-related images “
Boys believed that they could control the outcomes of social media use by selecting content that promoted their self-image. Boys reported that they “
However, girls reported that they did not actively select positive content as they felt that all body-related content on social media was damaging. Even content designed to improve body image, such as body-positive content, was viewed skeptically by girls. While girls acknowledged and lauded increased efforts to promote body-acceptance, they held reservations about the effectiveness of these efforts. Participants felt that there was a huge disparity between “
Female 16 “I think that, what people say when they post something, like what they say might be positive and well-meaning but nearly the pictures themselves speak for themselves and maybe what they are promoting in the pictures isn’t healthy even though they are saying ‘self-love’.”
Participants also found it difficult to endorse messages of body acceptance when they were delivered by individuals who embodied body ideals. Participants found it difficult to reconcile “
Female 7 “A lot of influencers do promote like body confidence and all that but that’s kind of easy for them to say at the same time because they do have the perfect body say for Instagram and all that sort of stuff.”
Other self-acceptance content was recently noted to contain diverse body types including “
Female 3 “Nothing’s like normal if you know what I mean.”
Researcher “Right ok, so it’s extremes of all of them kind of?”
Female 3 “Yeah, yeah.”
Researcher “So, nothing in the middle?”
Female 3 “Yeah.”
Although girls felt limited in their ability to engage in positive body-related content, especially on Instagram, some girls actively chose to engage with VSCO, an alternative social media platform that was considered less damaging for body image. VSCO was favored because it was not considered to be as “serious” as Instagram and did not contain feedback indices “likes,” “comments” or hierarchical structures such as “followers,” which were problematic features of Instagram. Girls felt that they
VSCO appeared to provide an alternative venue for girls to safely explore their body image without fears of overt judgment from others. However, its use was mentioned by girls in one school, and even among this group Instagram surpassed VSCO in terms of popularity despite the negative effects associated with Instagram.
Psychologically distancing oneself from comparison targets was a common strategy utilized by both boys and girls. Focusing on differences between the goals and values of comparison targets vs. themselves served to increase the psychological distance from these targets in boys and lessen their desire or drive to attain these bodies. Male 1 reconciled that “
Some girls attained psychological distance from targets by focusing on the manipulated, edited nature of the images. Female 10 noted that celebrities/social influencers on social media
Female 10 “I like the way they look but I don’t think I’d like to look as … extreme as they do. I don’t think it looks normal. But I think it looks normal with them because they all look like that, but if I walked in like them, I’d look weird, I’d look like an alien.”
While this distancing strategy worked for some, most girls noted that idealized images negatively affected them regardless of the knowledge of their manipulation and this limited the effectiveness of psychological distancing.
Both boys and girls reported that reflective practices such as taking a step back, conducting reality checks and looking at the bigger picture enabled them to reassure themselves. Other strategies mentioned by adolescents involved reframing or putting a positive spin on challenging content. One boy suggested that focusing on goals and achievement rather than focusing on discrepancies and feeling self-pity enabled him to process social media content in a healthier way.
Male 4 “Depends on what way you view it really. If you look at it like, saying they’re this and they’re that and I’m just here, you’re not – you’re always just going to be feeling shite like. You are not going to move forward at all. If you just take – just watch whoever, take inspiration, try work yourself, if you want to be like them, work yourself towards being like them.”
In addition, accepting one’s uniqueness and viewing difference as a good rather than negative thing was identified by a female participant as a way of framing body image in a positive light.
Female 21 “I think the problem overall is that we are looking at difference as if it were a problem, we are saying “Why don’t I look like that? Why can’t I be that person?” But I think we all just have to learn to accept that we are all different and we know these facts, but we chose to ignore them!”
Ceasing to judge others and oneself was also mentioned by a few participants, however, it was acknowledged that this was difficult to achieve. Although boys appeared to be less judgmental and more accepting of their bodies with Male 4 noting “
Female 19 “The more you look at the photo you’re like ‘God I hate it’ you see things that other people wouldn’t see and you’re like ‘I hate everything about it’.”
One girl stressed the value of maintaining a compassionate mindset and endorsed the notion that everyone struggles with the same issues and not to be so harsh and critical toward oneself.
Female 21 “I think we always compare ourselves to the people we see on social media, so we don’t see their flaws, because we are busy pointing out our own in comparison to theirs. We don’t realise that not everyone is perfect as well. And because of that we are kind of blind.”
Female 21 “I just think that young girls need to stop comparing themselves and to take a minute to realise that we are all the same, we are all doing the exact same thing; We are all sitting at home, scrolling. And all the likes we receive, it’s just a double tap of the finger, that person probably doesn’t probably even look at it for more two seconds, we need to stop overthinking everything.”
However, these reframing strategies were only mentioned by a few individuals in focus groups and did not typically reflect the whole groups’ responses to body-related content on social media.
Some participants, particularly girls, reported that they felt social media negatively influenced their body image perceptions. Aligning with the literature, adolescents reported that appearance-focused activities like photo sharing/editing practices and appearance comparisons with celebrities, social media influencers, and peers led to feelings of body dissatisfaction (
Limiting their social media use and avoiding, unfollowing, or ignoring problematic body related content were the strategies most used by adolescents to protect their body image on social media. However, as found by
Aligning with these control beliefs, girls tended to report more passive responses to social media such as “putting up” with problematic content. Some boys, on the other hand, reported that they actively sought out and selected positive content that inspired them to exercise or helped them improve in some way. It should be noted that the number of boys in the present study was relatively small. Adolescent girls did not appear to engage in such active selection strategies as they felt that any content related to body image exerted negative effects on them, including content designed to promote positive body image. Adolescent girls’ reservations about body positive/acceptance content is notable as it contrasts with the endorsement of the protective effects of this content for body image in the literature (e.g.,
However, VSCO was a photo-sharing platform that was preferred by some girls to Instagram because it did not contain feedback indices such as likes, comments, followers and subsequently did not put as much appearance-related pressure on girls. VSCO has not previously featured in body image research and is worthy of further research attention because it represents a platform that may contain protective features for body image, namely the lack of hierarchical popularity structures or feedback indices.
Some girls distanced themselves from body ideals by reminding themselves that body ideals were not attainable – a strategy also noted by
Adolescents exhibited a repertoire of strategies to protect and promote body image. The use of these strategies by adolescents and their perceived effectiveness varied. Passive and avoidance strategies were most commonly used but were limited in terms of perceived effectiveness, while active and acceptance strategies were considered effective but were least commonly employed, especially by girls. As these active and acceptance-focused strategies are considered components of positive body image (
Adolescents in this sample did exhibit aspects of protective filtering (as observed by
Boys appeared to hold more positive perceptions of social media’s influence on body image, processed body-related content in “protective ways” and exhibited higher levels of body-acceptance than girls. Mirroring the findings of the national study of adolescent boys in the United Kingdom of
Nonetheless, some boys and girls reported self-criticism, self-blame, and body-dissatisfaction from social media comparisons and for perceived failures to adhere to desired body standards. Knowledge/information about body ideals did not always appear to change how individuals felt about their body image. This suggests that enhancing social media literacy and knowledge is not alone sufficient to mitigate tendencies to engage in appearance comparison and body ideal internalization behaviors and help individuals to internalize positive body-related messages. Furthermore, relying on body positive/body acceptance content to promote positive body image is also not sufficient given adolescent girls’ skepticism of this content and its ability to improve their body image perceptions.
Self-compassion approaches are purported to target and change how individuals feel about their bodies by addressing self-criticism and shame at the root of body dissatisfaction (
Compassion-focused approaches may be particularly useful for improving adolescent body image on social media, as they can provide individuals with the skills to reframe self-critical thoughts and enhance their resilience to negative body-related messages on social media. Self-compassion may also enable adolescents, especially girls, to internalize positive body-related messages and foster greater levels of body appreciation (
Although this study sought to capture a diversity of viewpoints by recruiting from heterogenous schools that differed in terms of school status (private vs. public) and school size (medium-large and small), the sample size of this study was small which limits the transferability of the findings. Furthermore, very few boys participated in the study, which further limits the conclusions that can be made about social media’s influence on their body image perceptions. Due to study, time pressures a pragmatic decision was made to proceed with the analysis and write-up with the imbalanced gender split. This difficulty in recruiting male participants has been noted in the research in this area, and it may be indicative of male stigma around body image and a reluctance among adolescents to discuss it as a topic (
The focus group design may have influenced participant’s responses such that they may have provided socially desirable answers that may not have reflected personal opinions, or their opinions may have been swayed by or suppressed because of dominant members of the group.
Some adolescents, especially girls, indicated that social media led them to feel dissatisfied with their bodies. Boys and girls appeared to employ different strategies to manage to address the gender-specific challenges they encountered online. Boys appeared to exhibit more agency and active coping strategies, which contrasted with girls who were less optimistic about their ability to control social media outcomes and who struggled to interpret body-related information in a positive, self-protective way. Future research should examine these gender differences in larger samples across diverse contexts.
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.
CM conceived, planned, and carried out the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript with input from DH, who was involved in the planning and supervision of the study. Both the authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
We would like to acknowledge colleagues Ms. Selin Akkol-Solakoglu who assisted with focus groups and Ms. Molly Light who assisted with inter-rater agreements and the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin for their support.
1We wish to thank a reviewer of the paper for highlighting this issue.
2We would like to thank the reviewer for highlighting that demand characteristics may have influenced participant responses such that respondents are likely to just go with the theme of the questions, rather than spontaneously come to the conclusion that social media influences them in negative ways.