Social Media Effects on Lifestyle Satisfaction

Effects of Exposure to Body Positive and Fitspiration Instagram Content on Undergraduate Women's State Body Satisfaction, State Body Appreciation, and Mood

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Media; Control Group
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Effects of Instagram Exposure on Lifestyle Satisfaction

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 98
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Tempe, Arizona, United States, 85281
      • Arizona State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years to 27 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Female
• Enrolled as part or full-time undergraduate students at Arizona State University
• 18-29 years old
• Access to computer and internet
• Able to read, speak, and understand English
• Willing to be randomized into one of three treatment groups

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of a clinical diagnosis or treatment for body dysmorphic disorder, disordered eating, anorexia, bulimia or clinical depression
• Pregnant

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Control; The control group will be exposed to 15 different appearance-neutral images of interior design, with a manipulation checkpoint between every other image asking participants a basic question (such as what color was most prevalent in the previous image?) regarding characteristics of the last image they were exposed to.	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.
Experimental: Fitspiration; Participants assigned to the Fitspiration condition (n=30) will be exposed to 15 different fitspiration images, with a manipulation checkpoint between every other image asking participants a basic question (such as what color was the swimsuit of the model in the previous image?) regarding characteristics of the last image they were exposed to.	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.
Experimental: Body Positive; Participants assigned to the Body Positive condition (n=30) will be exposed to 15 different body positive images, with a manipulation checkpoint between every other image asking participants a basic question (such as what color was the swimsuit of the model in the previous image?) regarding characteristics of the last image they were exposed to.	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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
State Body Satisfaction	State body satisfaction will be measured using Visual Analogue Scales. Subjects will be asked to indicate their responses by marking a position on the scale between '0' to '100'. The three body satisfaction scales will be: 'At this moment, I am satisfied with my weight,' 'At this moment, I am satisfied with my overall appearance,' and 'At this moment, I am satisfied with my body shape.' A series of statements related to lifestyle satisfaction (i.e. relationship satisfaction, household living satisfaction, fiscal satisfaction) will also be added to this scale to uphold the cover story of this study being the effects of social media on Lifestyle Satisfaction.	Through study completion (1 day with pretest and posttest measures)
State Body Appreciation	State body appreciation will be measured using three Visual Analogue Scales. These questions were adapted from the Body Appreciation Scale (Avalos, Tylka, & Wood-Barcalow, 2005) into state measures and were found to have high internal reliability within the previous study (Slater, Varsani, & Diedrichs, 2017). Subjects will be asked to indicate their responses by marking a position on the scale between '0' to '100'. The three body satisfaction scales will be: 'Right now, despite my flaws, I accept my body for what it is' 'right now, my feelings towards my body are positive for the most part,' and 'right now, my self-worth is independent of my body weight or shape'	Through study completion (1 day with pretest and posttest measures)
State Mood	Subjective mood will be measured at both pre-intervention and post-intervention in the laboratory using Visual Analogue Scales. These scales will ask participants to indicate how they feel "at this moment" with regards to the following emotions: anxiety, anger, confidence, happiness, and depression	Through study completion (1 day with pretest and posttest measures)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Trait thin-ideal internalization	Will be measured pre-exposure to the intervention images. The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 will be included to assess this measure as an effect modifier at baseline.	Through study completion (1 day with baseline measures only)
Trait Social Coparison	Will be measured pre-exposure to the intervention images. The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised (PACS-R) will be included to assess this measure as an effect modifier at baseline.	Through study completion (1 day with baseline measures only)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Arizona State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Cheryl Der Ananian, PhD, Arizona State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 3, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 24, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): February 24, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 31, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 31, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): February 5, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 1, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 30, 2020
• Last Verified: April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: Socia Media and Body Image

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No