Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 17, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
Date Accepted: Mar 23, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Exploring the relationship between Instagram use and self-criticism, self-compassion and body dissatisfaction in Spanish women: Observational study.
ABSTRACT
Background:
The extensive use of online social networks, particularly among young individuals, has sparked a burgeoning interest in investigating how these platforms influence the psychological well-being of their users. Instagram, a platform emphasizing visual displays, has generated significant interest. Many previous studies have indicated that Instagram usage is linked to increased perfectionism, body dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem. Perfectionism has also been associated with self-criticism, which involves an extreme self-scrutiny and has been correlated considerable psychopathology. In contrast, self-compassion contributes to lower perfectionism and stress, while promoting greater positive affect and overall life satisfaction.
Objective:
We study the relationship between the use of Instagram and users' self-compassion, self-criticism and body dissatisfaction.
Methods:
Participants in this study were 1051 adults between 18 and 50 years old, born in Spain or residents in this country for at least 10 years. All participants completed a customized, researcher-designed questionnaire on Instagram use, a short version of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), a short version of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ-14) and a short version of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) from January 23rd, 2022, to February 25th of the same year.
Results:
A positive relationship was found between daily Instagram daily usage and Self-criticism scores. In addition, content focused on physical appearance was also found to have a positive association with Self-criticism and Body Dissatisfaction scores.
Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that Instagram use has a significant impact on Self-criticism and Body dissatisfaction, two variables that impact users' psychological well-being and that have been associated with various types of symptoms and psychological pathologies.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.