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BRIEF REPORT
Reducing Social Media Use Improves Appearance and Weight Esteem in
Youth With Emotional Distress
Helen Thai
1
, Christopher G. Davis
2
, Wardah Mahboob
2, 3
, Sabrina Perry
2, 3
, Alex Adams
2, 3
,
and Gary S. Goldfield
2, 3, 4
1
Department of Psychology, McGill University
2
Department of Psychology, Carleton University
3
Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
4
Department of Pediatrics, University of Ottawa
Adolescence and young adulthood are vulnerable periods in which mental health challenges often emerge.
Cross-sectional research has shown that high social media use (SMU) is associated with poor body image in
youth, a known predictor of eating disorders; however, high-quality experimental evidence is scarce, limit-
ing the ability to make causal inferences. The present study experimentally examined the effects of reducing
smartphone SMU on appearances and weight esteem in youth with emotional distress. A randomized con-
trolled trial was conducted where 220 participants (17–25 years; 76% female, 23% male, and 1% other) were
assigned to either an intervention (SMU limited to 1 hr/day) or control (unrestricted access to SMU) group.
SMU was monitored via screen time trackers and submitted daily during 1-week baseline and 3-week inter-
vention periods. Baseline and post-intervention measurements were taken to assess changes in appearance
and weight esteem. Compared to the controls, the intervention group yielded significant increases in both
appearance ( p,.022) and weight esteem ( p,.026). The intervention group significantly increased in
appearance esteem (from M= 2.95 to 3.15, p,.001, d
z
= 0.33) and weight esteem (from M= 3.16 to
3.32, p,.001, d
z
= 0.27), whereas the control group did not significantly change (appearance: M= 2.72
to 2.76, p= .992, d
z
= 0.13; weight: M= 3.01 to 3.02, p= .654, d
z
= 0.06) from baseline to post-intervention.
No effects of gender were detected. Findings suggest that reducing SMU on smartphones may be a feasible
and effective method of improving body image in a vulnerable population of youth.
Public Policy Relevance Statement
A brief 4-week intervention using screen time trackers showed that reducing social media use (SMU,
experimental group) yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed
youth with heavy SMU, whereas unrestricted access to social media (control group) did not.
Reducing SMU is a feasible method of producing a short-term positive effect on body image among
Gary S. Goldfield https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6216-7824
No competing interests, personal financial interests, funding, employ-
ment, or other competing interests were reported by the authors of this
paper.
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in
the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data Availability Statement. The data thatsupport the findings of this study
are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The
data are not publicly available due to ethics constraints and the potential
for breaching participant privacy and confidentiality.
Participant Consent Statement. All participants provided were informed,
orally and in writing, about the purpose of the study, its requirements, and
potential risks involved as per the informed consent process. Participants
who met the eligibility criteria provided informed consent.
Clinical Trial Registration. As this research involved a brief social media
reduction intervention that is still in the proof-of-concept stage, we did not
deem this study as a clinical trial, therefore no registration was obtained.
However, this research, involving human participants, conforms to the
recognized standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and CONSORT
Guidelines.
Helen Thai served as lead for data curation, formal analysis, visualization,
writing–original draft, writing–review and editing and contributed equally to
methodology. Christopher G. Davis served as lead for conceptualization, super-
vision. Wardah Mahboob served in a supporting role for project administration,
writing–review and editing. Sabrina Perryserved in a supporting role for project
administration, writing–review and editing. Alex Adams served in a supporting
role for project administration, writing–review and editing. Gary S. Goldfield
served as lead for conceptualization, supervision. Helen Thai, Christopher
G. Davis, and Gary S. Goldfield contributed equally to investigation.
Christopher G. Davis and Gary S. Goldfield contributed equally to writing–
review and editing.
This research received approval from Carleton University’s research ethics
board (Protocol 111107).
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gary
S. Goldfield, Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group,
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Research Institute, 401 Smyth
Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada. Email: ggoldfield@cheo.on.ca
Psychology of Popular Media
© 2023 American Psychological Association
ISSN: 2689-6567 https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000460
1
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
a vulnerable population of users and should be evaluated as a potential component in the treatment of
body image-related disturbances.
Keywords: social media, body image, appearance esteem, weight esteem, intervention
The rising popularity of social media use (SMU) has garnered
attention over the last several years, with many concerned about
the effects it may have on mental health, particularly in adolescents
and young adults (Karim et al., 2020). Adolescence and young
adulthood, spanning from ages 17 to 25 years, are critical stages
of life during which numerous psychological, physical, neurobiolog-
ical, behavioral, and social changes take place (Paus et al., 2008;
Wood et al., 2018). These changes occur in concert with exposure
to numerous sociocultural factors (e.g., appearance comparisons,
teasing, social exclusion) that commonly perpetuate body dissatis-
faction, a consistent predictor of eating disorders and other mental
illnesses (Prnjak et al., 2021;Tremblay & Limbos, 2009).
Paralleling this perpetuation of body dissatisfaction is the ubiquitous
growth of SMU, which has undeniably become an integrated part of
many young people’s lives.
Although social media may indeed be an accessible medium for
greater connectivity, resources, and creativity, many studies have
documented that youth who are heavy or frequent users of social
media tend to have more body image concerns (for meta-analysis,
see Ryding & Kuss, 2020). However, evidence for the negative
effect of SMU on body image is constrained by several limitations.
To date, this literature is dominated by correlational studies that
preclude or limit causal inferences and rely on self-reports to quan-
tify SMU. Concerning self-reported time on social media, a recent
meta-analytic review indicated that self-reported SMU correlates
only weakly with device-based measures, suggesting that self-
reported SMU does not adequately reflect actual use (Parry et al.,
2021); device-based measures provide a more accurate assessment
of SMU.
1
Moreover, few studies in the literature utilize an experi-
mental design to assess the effects of SMU on body image (or,
indeed, other aspects of mental health). Most experimental social
media research on body image has involved implementing social
media literacy programs among adolescent girls (Bell et al.,
2022;Mclean et al., 2017), or have focused on exposure to only
certain social media platforms (e.g., Facebook; for review, see
Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016).
In addition to these methodological criticisms, meta-analytic
reviews of cross-sectional research on SMU and body image con-
cerns have concluded that although statistically significant, the
association is rather weak (r=.169; Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019).
This weaker-than-expected association between SMU and body
image may be due to the possibility that some individuals are
more vulnerable to the harmful effects of social media than others.
For example, Seabrook et al. (2016) showed that youth with cer-
tain cognitive styles (e.g., ruminative, brooding) are more suscep-
tible to the negative effects of SMU than those without those
cognitive styles. Similarly, Twenge and colleagues have indicated
that those lacking in-person interaction (Twenge, Joiner, et al.,
2018) and/or those with preexisting mental health difficulties
(Twenge, Martin, et al., 2018) appear to be more susceptible to
the negative effects of SMU than others. These studies suggest
that distressed youth may be particularly vulnerable to the nega-
tive effects of frequent SMU; however, what has yet to be
explored is whether reducing SMU would also reduce its potential
harms.
To better understand the effect that reducing SMU has on body
image, we conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT)
wherein a sample of distressed, frequent (adolescent) users of social
media were asked to limit their SMU to 60 min/day for 3 weeks
(Thai et al., 2021). Compared to controls who self-monitoring controls
who had unrestricted access to SMU, those asked to reduce their SMU
showed improvements in appearance esteem but not weight esteem.
However, due to the small sample size, we were unable to conduct
meaningful gender analyses. The objective of this study is to replicate
these results in a larger sample and to address these limitationsto better
understand the effects of reducing SMU on body image.
In this paper, we examine whether a brief intervention that targets
SMU reduction (1 hr/day for 3 weeks) leads to improvements in facets
of body esteem (i.e., appearance and weight esteem) in youth who
experience emotional distress. Following our pilot study (Thai et al.,
2021), we targeted a clinically relevant population as youth with dis-
tress are at greater risk of experiencing the negative effects of heavy
SMU and are susceptible to significant body image concerns
(Collison & Harrison, 2020). Accordingly, we hypothesized that par-
ticipants in the intervention group, who were asked to reduce SMU to
1 hr/day, would exhibit greater improvements in both appearance and
weight esteem at 4-week post-intervention compared to controls who
had no restrictions on SMU. Given that females tend to experience
greater body image concerns (He et al., 2020) and use social media
more often than males (Keles et al., 2020), we also examined, as a sec-
ondary objective, the extent to which gender moderates the effect of
SMU reduction on our outcome variables.
Method
Participants
Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology
course at a Canadian university were recruited through an online par-
ticipant pool to participate in a 4-week study entitled, Limiting
Social Media Screen-time on iPhones and Androids. Participant
recruitment took place over three academic semesters from
January 2021 to December 2021. Eligibility requirements included
individuals aged 17–25 years who were regular social media users
(at least 2 hr/day on average) on their smartphones and have symp-
toms of depression or anxiety as assessed with two items from the
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Bradley et
al., 2010) and two items from the Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Scale (Spitzer et al., 2006). The purpose of the study (i.e., examining
1
Among the dearth of research using device-based measures of SMU is a
recent prospective study by Sewall et al. (2022), which found that fluctuations
in SMU over time did not affect psychological distress (depression, anxiety,
social isolation) in young adults. This study, however, did not examine facets
of body image, thus it is unknown whether changes in device-based measures
of SMU would yield similar results for body image.
THAI ET AL.
2
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
the effects of limiting SMU on mental health-related outcomes) was
not disclosed to participants during the recruitment, enrollment, and
study period. All participants provided informed consent. This study
received approval from the university’s research ethics board.
Participants received grade-raising credit for their participation.
Study Design
The present study employed a parallel group, RCT design that was
developed in compliance with CONSORT guidelines for non-
pharmacological trials (Boutron et al., 2017). The 4-week study
comprised a 1-week baseline period followed by a 3-week interven-
tion period. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two
groups, control or intervention, using a computer-generated random-
ization scheme on Excel by a member of the research team who was
uninvolved in participant recruitment. Participants assigned to the
intervention group were instructed to reduce their daily SMU to a
maximum of 1 hr, whereas participants assigned to the control
group were instructed to use their SMU as per usual (i.e., no restric-
tion). Measurements were collected during pre- and post-
intervention to detect changes in outcome variables.
Procedure
All study procedures were conducted virtually. Participant recruit-
ment involved a rolling admission process, where the individual
could enroll in the study and complete it in a given semester. After
signing up to participate in the study, participants attended an online
session (via Zoom) where they were informed, orally and in writing,
about the purpose of the study, its requirements, and potential risks
involved as per the informed consent process. Participants who met
the eligibility criteria and provided informed consent were then
instructed how to access and take a screenshot of their smartphone’s
daily screen time tracker to send to the study’s secure email inbox
daily over the 4-week study duration. Participants were then instructed
to complete an online baseline questionnaire via Qualtrics, which con-
tained demographic characteristics, mental health outcomes, and typi-
cal weekday and weekend SMU over the past week. During the
baseline period (Days 1–7), all participants were instructed to use
their SMU as per usual and received a daily email reminder each eve-
ning to send their SMU screenshot the next morning to capture the full
24 hr of the day. On Day 7, participants randomly assigned to the inter-
vention condition received a daily email with instructions to reduce
their SMU to a maximum of 1 hr/day starting the next day for the
remaining three weeks (intervention period) and to send their SMU
screenshot, while those in the control group received the same daily
email sent during the baseline period reminding them to send their
SMU screenshot (i.e., controls were not instructed to limit SMU). In
the case that a participant in the intervention group did not reduce
their SMU to a maximum of 1 hr/day, an email was sent to remind
them of the study procedure. On Day 28, all participants received
the post-intervention questionnaire to complete via Qualtrics. Upon
study completion, an electronic debrief form was provided to inform
participants of the purpose of the study (i.e., to evaluate the effects
of reducing SMU on mental health).
Measures
Basic demographic information was collected at baseline via
online questionnaires, which included age (in years) and gender
categories (female, male, and other). Although the focus of this
paper is on the effect of SMU on body esteem variables, data on
other mental health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety) were also
collected but have been reported elsewhere as they were the primary
outcomes of this study (Davis et al., n.d.).
Social Media Use
Daily SMU was tracked objectively using screenshots of inte-
grated smartphone screen time tracking reports that were submitted
to the study’s secured inbox over the study period.
2
The integrated
screen time reports allow for tracking time spent on individual plat-
forms. Social media platforms tracked in this study included
Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, and
Tumblr. Messaging, video-calling, and -streaming platforms, such
as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, FaceTime, YouTube, and
Netflix, were not tracked or targeted for reduction. Using device-
based measures of SMU increases reliability and eliminates the
risk of recall bias common in self-reports of behavioral activity
(Parry et al., 2021).
Appearance and Weight Esteem
Levels of appearance and weight esteem were measured using an
abbreviated version of the Body Esteem Scale for Adults and
Adolescents (BESAA; Mendelson et al., 2001). The original
BESAA is divided into appearance, weight, and attribution sub-
scales. We assessed appearance and weight esteem using the five
of the highest loading items based on Cragun et al.’s (2013) factor
analysis for appearance (e.g., “I’m pretty happy about the way I
look”) and weight (e.g., “I am satisfied with my weight”) esteem
subscales. An a priori decision was made to exclude the attribution
subscale as items pertaining to this subscale focused on evaluation
attributed to others about one’s appearance and body (e.g.,
“People my own age like my looks”). Responses to appearance
and weight esteem subscale items were made on a 5-point Likert
scale ranging from 1 (never)to5(always). After reverse scoring 6
out of the 10 items, a mean item score was calculated for each sub-
scale, with higher scores indicating higher esteem. In the present
study, Cronbach’sαs at baseline were 0.90 and 0.88, and at post-
intervention were 0.90 and 0.90 for appearance and weight esteem,
respectively.
Analytic Plan
Data for outcome variables were approximately normally distrib-
uted in accordance with skewness and kurtosis standards indicated
by Byrne (2013) and Hair et al. (2010). Descriptive statistics were
used to characterize the sample at baseline. Group differences
were evaluated by independent ttests for continuous data and
2
We also asked participants in the initial survey and follow-up survey to
self-report using a slider (range: 0–10+ hr) their average daily SMU on
other devices (e.g., laptop, tablet) in the past week. However, these questions
had a great deal of missing data, perhaps because the slider was initially set to
zero and participants may have assumed that leaving it at zero indicated 0 hr
on other devices. If they did not move the slider, the program registered it as a
skipped question. Given that we cannot determine whether a non-response
should be coded as “0hr”or “missing data/skipped question,”we do not
report these data.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND BODY IMAGE 3
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chi-square tests for categorical data. To ensure the intervention was
successful in limiting participants’SMU, a 2 (condition) ×4 (week)
mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted as a manipula-
tion check to compare daily SMU among participants in each condi-
tion during the 4-week study period. To test whether the intervention
had effects on appearance and weight esteem, and if intervention
effects were moderated by gender, separate 2 (condition) ×2 ( pre,
post) ×2 (gender: male/female) mixed ANOVA models were con-
ducted for each outcome. Significant interactions were explored
via simple effects. Statistical power was calculated using
GLIMMPSE Version 3 software (Kreidler et al., 2013). Power was
estimated based on a hypothesized condition ×time interaction
using a repeated ANOVA to determine the requisite sample size to
detect an expected 1/3 SD change in our outcome variables in the
intervention group, whereas no change was expected in the control
group, and anticipating a test–retest correlation in dependent vari-
ables of r=.6. For power of 0.80, 200 participants were required.
For all analyses, an αvalue was set at 0.05 to determine significance.
Cohen’sdwas used as a measure of effect size where 0.2, 0.5, and
0.8 are considered small, medium, and large effect sizes, respec-
tively (Cohen, 2013). Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 28.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
A total of 279 participants (76% female, 23% male, and 1% other)
were recruited and met the eligibility criteria. Sixty-seven percent
were aged 17–19 years, 20% were 20–22 years, and 13% were
23–25 years. Of the 279 participants, 59 were excluded from the
analyses. A summary of participants included in the analyses is out-
lined in the CONSORT diagram (Figure 1). The baseline character-
istics of the remaining sample are described in Table 1. Participants
demonstrated strong compliance in providing screenshots of their
daily SMU over the baseline and intervention periods and did not
differ by group ( p≥.71). During the baseline period, 94.5% pro-
vided screenshots on all 7 days and 93.2% provided screenshots
on at least 20 days during the intervention.
Manipulation Check
Results of the mixed ANOVA revealed that the intervention was
successful at reducing participants’daily SMU, F(3, 648) =94.05,
p,.001, d=1.31. Simple effects showed no difference between
groups during the baseline period, p=.197, however, significant
differences were detected between groups during the 3-week inter-
vention period, p,.001. Participants in the intervention condition
reduced their daily SMU by approximately 50%, to an average of
78.25 min/day (relative to 168.04 min/day during baseline),
whereas those in the control group averaged 180.81 min/day and
188.76 min/day during the baseline and intervention period,
respectively.
Main Analyses
For appearance esteem, results of the mixed ANOVA indicated a
nonsignificant main effect of condition, F(1, 213) =1.03, p=.311,
d=0.02, a significant main effect of time, F(1, 213) =5.40,
p=.021, d=0.29, and a significant condition by time interaction,
F(1, 213) =5.33, p=.022, d=0.28. Simple effects revealed that
the intervention group significantly increased in levels of appearance
esteem (from M=2.95 to 3.15, p,.001, d
z
=0.33),
3
whereas the
control group did not significantly increase (from M=2.72 to
2.76, p= .992, d
z
= 0.13) from baseline to post-intervention (see
Figure 2). When gender (male/female) was added as an independent
factor to the model, a significant main effect of gender was detected,
F(1, 213) = 8.42, p= .004, d= 0.37, however, gender did not signifi-
cantly moderate the two-way interaction, F(1, 213) = 3.50, p= .063,
d= 0.21.
For weight esteem, mixed ANOVA results indicated a significant
main effect of condition, F(1, 213) = 8.34, p=.004,d= 0.37, sig-
nificant main effect of time, F(1, 213) = 8.35, p= .004, d= 0.37,
and a significant condition by time interaction, F(1, 213) = 5.04,
p= .026, d= 0.27. Simple effects revealed that the intervention
group significantly increased in levels of weight esteem (from
M=3.16to3.32,p,.001, d
z
= 0.27), whereas the control group
did not increase significantly (from M=3.01to3.02,p= .654,
d
z
= 0.06; see Figure 3). The main effect of gender (male/female)
was not significant, F(1, 213) = 1.16, p= .282, d= 0.06, nor did
gender moderate the two-way interaction described above,
F(1, 213) = 1.91, p= .168, d= 0.13. See Table 2 for a summary
of ANOVA main and interaction effects on outcome variables.
Discussion
The present study examined the effect of reducing SMU on
appearance and weight esteem in youth with emotional distress.
Results supported our hypothesis that reducing daily SMU led to dis-
cernible improvements in both appearance and weight esteem rela-
tive to self-monitoring controls who had unrestricted access to
SMU. Notably, the intervention group exhibited significant
improvements in appearance and weight esteem, with small to
medium effect sizes. Moreover, exploratory moderation analyses
showed that, within our sample, reducing SMU may have a positive
effect on body image that is comparable for both male and female
youth with emotional distress. By utilizing an experimental design
and assessing SMU through an integrated device-based measure,
these findings overcome the most significant limitations of prior
studies and advance knowledge on whether reducing SMU facili-
tates improvements in body image among youth with emotional
distress.
Although potential mechanisms driving this effect were not inves-
tigated in the present study, researchers have proposed that limiting
SMU may reduce users’engagement in unfavorable social compar-
isons and ideal body internalization, thereby facilitating improve-
ments in appearance and weight-related esteem (Fardouly et al.,
2015;Hogue & Mills, 2019;Jarman et al., 2021;Marengo et al.,
2018;Tiggemann et al., 2018). For example, one recent study
found that upward social comparison with social media influencers
fully mediated the relation between Instagram use and body dissat-
isfaction among female youth (Pedalino & Camerini, 2022).
However, a large proportion of such studies are based on cross-
sectional data, self-reported SMU, and do not consider individual
differences that make some youth more susceptible than others. As
such, there is a need for more experimental research to better
3
The effect size estimate Cohen’sd
z
was calculated directly from the
tvalue and number of participants using the formula provided by Lakens
(2013).
THAI ET AL.
4
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
understand how reducing SMU confers improvements in body
esteem in vulnerable populations, such as youth with emotional dis-
tress who are heavy users of SMU.
Limitations
Although the present study adds experimental evidence to the
extant literature on the effect of modifying SMU on body image,
there are limitations to consider. First, the intervention was brief
(3 weeks long) and may not be effective if extended for a longer
duration for youth who are heavy SMU users. Nonetheless, both
participant compliance and retention to the intervention were
high and provide support as a proof-of-concept study. Second, it
remains unknown the extent to which those in the intervention con-
dition would be able to maintain the reduced SMU beyond the
study period and if long-term reduction in SMU would yield stron-
ger improvements. Third, although not all participants in the inter-
vention group met the 1 hr/day SMU limit, SMU was reduced by
approximately 50% during the 3-week intervention period
(78.25 min/day) from baseline (168.04 min/day). This sug-
gests that, for some heavy users, reducing SMU to 1 hr/day may
not be overly ambitious. That the intervention group reduced
SMU by 50% and still showed improvement in body image sug-
gests that it is the reduction in time spent on social media that is
important.
Although we were able to objectively monitor SMU on smart-
phone devices, we had no control over SMU that may have occurred
on other devices (e.g., computers, tablets, and laptops). It is unlikely
that those participants assigned to the intervention condition dispro-
portionately shifted their use to other devices since if they had
Figure 1
Participant CONSORT Flow Diagram
Note. Error bars represent standard errors.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND BODY IMAGE 5
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
done so, we would not have observed the improvements in body
image.
4
Whereas one of our goals was to assess gender differences in the
extent to which reducing social media improves body image, our
sample was still disproportionately female (3:1). Although this is
to be expected given (a) that psychology students are more likely
to be female than male, and (b) that females were more likely than
males to meet eligibility criteria (i.e., report symptoms of depression
or anxiety and be heavy users of social media), it nevertheless means
that our analyses involving gender were somewhat underpowered.
Finally, it must be acknowledged that our sample comprised univer-
sity students who volunteered to enroll in a study where they had a
50/50 chance of being asked to reduce their SMU, and as such, the
results may not generalize to youth less motivated to limit their SMU.
Future Directions
The present study targeted a vulnerable population (i.e., youth
with emotional distress who use social media frequently) that may
be at greater risk of body image concerns, thus providing greater
clinical relevance and utility of the intervention. Although there is
good evidence that high SMU may perpetuate body image concerns,
an important avenue for future research is to clarify not just who is at
risk of social media harms, but also what kind of use is likely to lead
to harm if users are engaging with certain content. Most social media
platforms are developed in such a way that users’daily social media
feed is generated by the algorithms based on their engagement with
specific content and/or sources (e.g., models, peers, businesses,
memes). In other words, the content to which users are exposed
may influence facets of body image differently. For instance,
SMU on visual-based platforms such as Instagram was found to pre-
dict users’visual attention to high-anxiety body regions to a greater
extent than platforms that often display both visual and word-based
posts, such as Facebook (Couture Bue, 2020). Future research may
benefit from investigating other aspects of SMU in addition to
time spent on these platforms.
Conclusion
The present study makes a novel contribution to the limited exper-
imental literature on SMU and body image. To the best of our knowl-
edge, this is the first adequately powered study to demonstrate that a
brief intervention involving smartphone-based SMU reduction of
approximately 50% from baseline may be a feasible and effective
method of improving appearance and weight esteem among youth
with emotional distress. Our findings show that reducing SMU
reaps comparable benefits in body esteem for both males and
females. Although more research is warranted to assess maintenance
effects, our findings show that reducing SMU has a short-term pos-
itive effect on body image among a vulnerable population of youth
with emotional distress, and thus should be evaluated as an impor-
tant component in the treatment and prevention of body image-
related disturbances.
Figure 2
Effect of Reducing Social Media Use on Levels of Appearance
Esteem by Condition
Note. Error bars represent standard errors.
Figure 3
Effect of Reducing Social Media Use on Levels of Weight Esteem by
Condition.
Table 1
Baseline Characteristics of Study Sample
Total,
N= 220
Intervention,
n= 117
Control,
n= 103 p
Gender (n) .55
Male 50 25 25
Female 168 92 76
Other 2 0 2
Age group (n) .39
17–19 years old 161 84 77
20–22 years old 37 22 15
23–25 years old 11 4 7
Baseline variables M(SD)
Appearance esteem 2.85 (0.88) 2.95 (0.85) 2.72 (0.90) .06
Weight esteem 3.09 (1.07) 3.16 (1.08) 3.01 (1.06) .28
Daily social media
use (Days 1–7) 174.02 (76.32) 168.04 (73.01) 180.81 (79.74) .11
Note. p ,.05 to indicate differences between intervention and control.
4
As noted earlier, at our 4-week follow-up assessment, we did ask partic-
ipants in both conditions the extent to which they used other devices in the
past week. Although there were data quality issues, we found no significant
difference between those in the intervention and those in the control
conditions.
THAI ET AL.
6
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Table 2
ANOVA Main Effects and Interaction Effects on Appearance and
Weight Esteem
Source MS F p d
Appearance esteem
Condition 2.18 1.03 .311 0.02
Time 0.81 5.40 .021 0.29
Gender 17.78 8.42 .004 0.37
Condition ×Time 0.80 5.33 .022 0.28
Condition ×Gender 1.33 0.63 .43 0.00
Time ×Gender 0.00 0.03 .868 0.00
Condition ×Time ×Gender 0.52 3.50 .063 0.22
Error (within) 0.15
Error (between groups) 2.11
Weight esteem
Condition 12.11 8.34 .004 0.37
Time 1.18 8.35 .004 0.37
Gender 2.66 1.83 .178 0.12
Condition ×Time 0.71 5.04 .026 0.27
Condition ×Gender 1.69 1.16 .282 0.06
Time ×Gender 0.03 0.18 .676 0.00
Condition ×Time ×Gender 0.27 1.91 .168 0.13
Error (within) 0.14
Error (between groups) 1.45
Note. Boldface indicates statistical significance ( p,.05); N=218.
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Received July 13, 2022
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Accepted January 4, 2023 ▪
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