Jasmine Fardouly

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · School of Psychology

This online experimental study examined the impact of viewing disclaimer comments attached to idealized social media images on 18- to 25-year-old American women’s (N = 164) body dissatisfaction, mood, and perceptions of the target. Furthermore, this study also tested whether thin ideal internalization or appearance comparison tendency moderated any...

Viewing idealized images of attractive women on social media can negatively impact women’s body image and mood. Although women tend to post idealized images on social media, some also post natural no-makeup images. This study examined the impact of viewing both made up and no-makeup selfies on young women’s body image and mood. Female undergraduate...

Plain English Summary Machine learning models are computer algorithms that learn from data to reach an optimal solution for a problem. These algorithms provide exciting potential for the accurate, accessible, and cost-effective early identification, prevention, and treatment of eating disorders, but this potential is just beginning to be explored....

This three-wave panel study examined the prospective and bidirectional relationships between parental control of social media use, and parents’ and adolescents’ perceived time spent on social media over a 2-year period. Adolescents (52% males, T1: M age = 12.19, SD = 0.52) and one of their parents (96% mothers, T1: M age = 45.26, SD = 4.28) complet...

This review presents recent trends in social media and body image research, with a particular focus on different social media platforms, features unique to social media and potentially positive content for body image. First, it was found that visual platforms (e.g., Instagram) were more dysfunctional for body image than more textual platforms (e.g....

The aim of this study was to evaluate the tripartite influence model of body image and disordered eating among 12-18-year-old girls (N = 900) living in Australia (n = 184), China (n = 293), India (n = 223), and Iran (n = 200). Participants completed measures about appearance pressures from family, peers, and media, thin-ideal internalization, appea...

A defining feature of social media is its social interactivity, but limited research has investigated how various aspects of digital social evaluation (i.e., likes, follows, comments) may be related with users' body image concerns. This study investigated the relationships between aspects of digital social evaluation and body image concerns in adol...

The current study examined the associations between perceived actual-ideal discrepancies in facial and bodily attributes and adolescent girls’ appearance satisfaction and whether these relationships were moderated by the importance associated with the attributes and/or the country of the participants. A multilingual survey was completed by 900 girl...

There is a rising prevalence of short-form videos on social media, particularly since the advent of TikTok. Viewing appearance-ideal images has harmful effects on young women's body image. However, the impacts of viewing appearance-ideal short-form videos on body image are largely unknown. This study investigated the impact of viewing appearance-id...

Adolescence is a time of heightened vulnerability for both peer victimization (PV) and internalizing symptoms. While the positive association between them is well established, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. To address this gap, the current study aimed to investigate sleep hygiene and school night sle...

Background Eating disorders (EDs) are complex psychological disorders, with low rates of detection and early intervention. They can lead to significant mental and physical health complications, especially if intervention is delayed. Given high rates of morbidity and mortality, low treatment uptake, and significant rates of relapse, it is important...

Plain English summary Our understanding of the prevalence and impact of eating disorders has improved significantly over the past 20-years. Research highlights that rates of eating disorders are increasing. To inform the development of the Eating Disorder Research and Translation Strategy 2021–2031 this review aimed to better understand the global...

Background: Risk factors represent a range of complex variables associated with the onset, development, and course of eating disorders. Understanding these risk factors is vital for the refinement of aetiological models, which may inform the development of targeted, evidence-based prevention, early intervention, and treatment programs. This Rapid...

Videoconferencing for work/study purposes has increased rapidly due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Given this practice often involves viewing one's own video image, higher appearance concerns whilst videoconferencing may be linked to poorer performance whereby individuals may not feel they are able to engage or have control during a work/study me...

Small changes to social media use could have a large impact across the population. The present study tested novel social media micro-interventions (i.e., brief content delivered in everyday life) in which young women (N = 159) were instructed to either (1) follow a body positive Facebook group, (2) follow an appearance neutral Facebook group, or (3...

Background Delayed diagnosis, gaps in services and subsequent delays in specialist care and treatment lead to poorer health outcomes for individuals with eating disorders (EDs) and drive significant government healthcare expenditure. Given the significant disease burden associated with EDs, it is imperative that current implementation research is s...

Research has consistently shown that more physically attractive individuals are perceived by others to be happier and better psychologically adjusted than those perceived as less attractive. However, due to the lack of longitudinal research in adolescents, it is still unclear whether poor mental health predicts or is predicted by either objective o...

Study objectives: Parental warmth in adolescence protects sleep in early adulthood, yet the nature, directions, and mechanisms of this association across adolescence are unknown. This study examined parental warmth, adolescent sleep hygiene and sleep outcomes (morning/eveningness, school night sleep duration and daytime sleepiness) across five ann...

Objective: The use of videoconferencing has increased during the pandemic, creating prolonged exposure to self-image. This research aimed to investigate whether eating disorder (ED) risk was associated with videoconferencing performance for work or study and to explore whether the use of safety behaviors and self-focused attention mediated the rel...

Time spent on social media and making online comparisons with others may influence users’ mental health. This study examined links between parental control over the time their child spends on social media, preadolescents’ time spent browsing social media, preadolescents’ appearance comparisons on social media, and preadolescents’ appearance satisfa...

The Identity Disruption Model posits that early adversity is associated with lower self-concept clarity, which in turn increases vulnerability to sociocultural appearance factors and body dissatisfaction, but this model has not previously been tested among adolescents. Testing the model during adolescence is critical because this is a key point of...

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are potentially severe, complex, and life-threatening illnesses. The mortality rate of EDs is significantly elevated compared to other psychiatric conditions, primarily due to medical complications and suicide. The current rapid review aimed to summarise the literature and identify gaps in knowledge relating to a...

Purpose of review: The cessation of in-person teaching to reduce the spread of COVID-19 dramatically increased the use of videoconferencing for home learning among adolescents. Recent findings: A consistent finding across studies assessing the relationship between videoconferencing and appearance concerns was that time spent focused on self-view...

Background Limited screening practices, minimal eating disorder training in the healthcare professions, and barriers related to help-seeking contribute to persistent low rates of eating disorder detection, significant unmet treatment need, and appreciable associated disease burden. The current review sought to broadly summarise the literature and i...

Objectives The aims of this study were to determine the impact of adolescent-relevant risk factors on changes in social anxiety symptoms from pre-to early-adolescence. Methods From 2016 to 2018, 528 youth (51% boys) were tested in three annual waves across grades 6, 7, and 8 (M ages 11.2, 12.7, 13.7 years). Through online surveys youth reported on...

A considerable body of research in adults has demonstrated that anxiety disorders are characterised by attentional biases to threat. Findings in children have been inconsistent. The present study examined anxiety-related attention biases using eye tracking methodology in 463 preadolescents between 10 and 12 years of age, of whom 92 met criteria for...

Background Eating disorders (EDs) are highly complex mental illnesses associated with significant medical complications. There are currently knowledge gaps in research relating to the epidemiology, aetiology, treatment, burden, and outcomes of eating disorders. To clearly identify and begin addressing the major deficits in the scientific, medical,...

Negative correlations between religiosity or spirituality and depression symptoms have been frequently reported, but relatively few empirical studies have investigated the processes that mediate the relationships. This study investigated four theorized mediators in a single model to assess the unique contributions of self-esteem, social support, me...

https://theconversation.com/instagram-can-make-teens-feel-bad-about-their-body-but-parents-can-help-heres-how-168093

Appearance comparisons can negatively influence women’s body image, but little is known about the potential impact of comparison targets. We conducted an ecological momentary assessment study in which female undergraduate students (N = 146) completed a brief online survey at five random times every day for five days. In this survey, participants we...

Background Parenting is a modifiable factor proposed to underpin the transmission of anxiety and depression from parents to children. This study examined the role of parenting in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depression across pre- and early adolescence. Method Participants were 531 youth (Mage = 11.18, SD = 0.56; 50.85% boys)...

People’s interest in cosmetic surgery has increased in recent years. Drawing from objectification theory, in the present study, we examined the associations of body talk on social networking sites (SNS), body surveillance, and body shame with cosmetic surgery consideration. In particular, we examined the mediating roles of body surveillance and bod...

Much of the literature investigating the association between coping and psychopathology is cross-sectional, or associations have been investigated in a unidirectional manner; hence, bidirectionality between coping and psychopathology remains largely untested. To address this gap, this study investigated bidirectional relations between coping and ps...

Objective A bi-directional relationship between technology use and adolescent sleep is likely, yet findings are mixed, and it is not known whether parental control of technology use can protect sleep. The current study examined bi-directionality between technology use on school nights and morning/eveningness, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness i...

Social networking sites (SNS) are a ubiquitous form of communication across age and cultural groups. Compared to women, investigation into the relationship between SNS and eating and body image concerns among men is limited. Men and boys tend to engage with SNS that provide information, such as YouTube and Twitter. However, they also engage in appe...

The restrictions put in place to contain the COVID-19 virus have led to widespread social isolation, impacting mental health worldwide. These restrictions may be particularly difficult for adolescents, who rely heavily on their peer connections for emotional support. However, there has been no longitudinal research examining the psychological impac...

Presenting no-makeup selfies interspersed with idealized made-up images may be beneficial for women’s body image. However, the impact of viewing only no-makeup selfies is still unknown, as is the influence of any positive appearance-related comments from others accompanying those images on social media. Thus, in the present study, we examined the i...

Objective This study examined whether social media behaviors were associated with higher odds of meeting criteria for an eating disorder and whether gender moderated these relationships. Method Australian adolescents (N = 4,209; 53.15% girls) completed the self‐report photo investment and manipulation scales. Additional self‐report items assessed...

Social anxiety is a common mental disorder with an average age of onset in early adolescence. Current theories focus largely on risk factors that are present from early in life, but reasons for onset of the disorder as youth move into adolescence are rarely discussed. We recently proposed a model of the onset of certain mental disorders during the...

Objectives: Preadolescent social media use is normative and could influence mental health. This study investigated: (a) Differences between preadolescent users and non-users of various social media platforms on mental health, (b) unique links between time spent on those platforms, appearance-based activities on social media, and mental health, and...

This experimental study examined the impact of attaching self-disclaimer captions (i.e., account holder's captions about the inauthenticity of their appearance) to idealized and edited social media images on 18- to 25-year-old Australian women's (N = 201) body dissatisfaction, mood, perceived realism of social media images, appearance comparisons,...

With the visual turn in online communication, selfies have become common on social media. Although selfies as a way of self-representation provide people with more chances to express themselves, the adverse effects selfies could bring to users’ body image need to be treated seriously. This study tested whether selfie-viewing behaviour on social med...

A few cross-sectional studies have found that selfie-related behaviors have positive associations with self-objectification or appearance concerns, but little is known about whether bidirectional relationships exist between selfie behaviors and these body-related variables over time. The present study examined the reciprocal relationships between s...

Social isolation may be a unique risk factor for depression and anxiety in early adolescence. However, optimal sleep may protect adolescents from the emotional sequela of social isolation. The present study aimed to investigate whether sleep moderates the relationship between social isolation and symptoms of anxiety and depression in early adolesce...

This research investigated associations between socially prescribed and self-orientated perfectionism, and the social functioning of 510 preteens (Mage = 11.2). The study focused on predictions from the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (PSDM) by determining whether rejection sensitivity and social isolation, in that sequence, mediated the a...

The adolescent developmental stage appears to be a sensitive period for the onset of several particular forms of mental disorder that are characterised by heightened emotionality and social sensitivity and are more common in females than males. We refer to these disorders (social anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, eating disorders, maj...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a key risk and maintenance factor for many psychological disorders and is considered a transdiagnostic process. However, there are few disorder-neutral measures that assess RNT in adults, only 1 of moderate length considered suitable for children, and none that are validated for both children and adults. This s...

Although social networking services typically promote the thin beauty ideal for women, they also provide an opportunity for users to challenge this dominant ideal in unique and novel ways. This study aimed to experimentally investigate the influence of exposure to humorous, parody images of thin-ideal celebrity Instagram posts on women’s body satis...

Exposure to fitspiration content via social media can influence women’s body satisfaction and exercise inspiration, but fitspiration exposure has not been investigated in men. This study examined links between the frequency of viewing fitspiration content on Instagram, and men’s body satisfaction, appearance-based exercise motivation and health-bas...

Body-positive content on social media aims to challenge mainstream beauty ideals and encourage acceptance and appreciation of all body types. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of viewing body-positive Instagram posts on young women’s mood and body image. Participants were 195 young women (18–30 years old) who were randomly allocated...

Time spent on social media and making online comparisons with others may influence users’ mental health. This study examined links between parental control over the time their child spends on social media, preadolescents’ time spent browsing social media, preadolescents’ appearance comparisons on social media, and preadolescents’ appearance satisfa...

Body positivity on social media aims to challenge mainstream beauty ideals and encourage acceptance and appreciation of all types of bodies. The present study aimed to experimentally investigate the impact of viewing body positive posts on Instagram on young women’s mood and body image. Participants were 195 young women (18-30-years old) who were r...

Research suggests that mothers may influence the development of body image concerns and eating disturbances in their daughters by modeling negative body image beliefs and unhealthy eating behaviors. However, the causal nature of that mode of influence is yet to be established. This study implemented an experimental design to examine the impact of m...

Appearance comparisons are an important sociocultural factor influencing women’s body image. These comparisons can occur in different contexts (e.g., through magazines, social media, in person). However, little is known about the frequency and outcome of appearance comparisons made in different contexts in women’s everyday lives. Using Ecological M...

This study examined the relationship between Instagram use (overall, as well as specifically viewing fitspiration images) and body image concerns and self-objectification among women between the ages of 18 and 25 from the United States (n = 203) and from Australia (n = 73). Furthermore, this study tested whether internalization of the societal beau...

This paper provides an overview of research on social media and body image. Correlational studies consistently show that social media usage (particularly Facebook) is associated with body image concerns among young women and men, and longitudinal studies suggest that this association may strengthen over time. Furthermore, appearance comparisons pla...

The media’s portrayal of women is often sexually objectifying, and greater exposure to objectifying media is associated with higher levels of self-objectification among young women. One reason why media usage may be associated with self- objectification is because women may be comparing their appearance to others in the media. The present study exa...

Appearance comparisons are an important socio-cultural factor influencing body dissatisfaction among young women. These appearance comparisons can occur when interacting with another person, reading magazines, watching television, or when engaging with social media. However, little is known about the frequency and outcome of appearance comparisons...

The present study experimentally investigated the effect of Facebook usage on women's mood and body image, whether these effects differ from an online fashion magazine, and whether appearance comparison tendency moderates any of these effects. Female participants (N = 112) were randomly assigned to spend 10 min browsing their Facebook account, a ma...

Use of social media, such as Facebook, is pervasive among young women. Body dissatisfaction is also highly prevalent in this demographic. The present study examined the relationship between Facebook usage and body image concerns among female university students (N=227), and tested whether appearance comparisons on Facebook in general, or comparison...

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether providing information about the lifestyle changes required for an individual to lose weight following bariatric surgery would mitigate the negative judgments of that individual. Methods: In an experimental design, participants provided their initial impressions of a woman with obesity bef...

Background: The present study investigated the stigma of obesity surgery by examining whether attitudes towards a lean person can change after learning that the person used to be obese but recently lost weight either through surgery or through diet and exercise. Methods: Participants (total N = 135) initially viewed an image of a lean woman or m...

Many obese individuals lose weight to reduce weight stigma; however, little is known about whether other people's attitudes actually improve towards obese individuals after they have lost weight, and whether changes in attitudes depend on the method of weight loss. This study examined changes in people's perceptions of an obese target who had lost...