The relationship between Instagram activity and female body concerns: The serial mediating role of appearance-related comparisons and internalization of beauty norms

Recent research showed that body image concerns (i.e., drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction) may be associated with exposure to images on social networking sites. We analysed this relationship by taking into account the possible mediating role of both the appearance-related comparisons (i.e., the comparison with others on a specific dimension) and the internalization of beauty standards (i.e., the acceptance of the predominant physical-attractiveness societal standards) in the Italian context. In two studies, we showed that Instagram-photo activity was positively associated with both drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction through the mediating role of appearance-related comparisons on Instagram. We further showed that the association between Instagram-photo activity and body image concerns was sequentially mediated by appearance-related comparisons on Instagram and the internalization of beauty standards. Female participants who engaged in Instagram-photo activity also expressed greater concerns about their bodies as they were highly likely to make more comparisons relative to the appearance dimension and show high levels of internalization of beauty standards. These findings are discussed within theoretical and applied implications in the social media domain. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.