Testing a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention for Appearance-Based Social Media Use: Implications for Body Image and Mood

Using social media applications such as Instagram can lead to increased body dissatisfaction and lower mood among young women. One intervention for combating the harmful effects of appearance-based social media may be through facilitating self-compassion, or the ability to treat oneself as a friend. This dissertation aimed to determine whether a brief writing-based self-compassion intervention (versus a neutral sorting task) could mitigate increases in body dissatisfaction and negative mood that are commonly observed among women after comparing themselves to thin-ideal images on Instagram. In two randomized controlled trials, 408 women (Study One: N = 178; Study Two: N = 230) between the ages of 18-55 years old were randomly assigned to complete either a brief self-compassion writing task or a simple sorting task (control). In Study One, participants were asked to scroll through an Instagram profile of pre-selected thin-ideal images and compare themselves to a young woman. Immediately after viewing the images and comparing themselves, participants completed their assigned task (i.e., self-compassion or sorting task). The results demonstrated that engaging in the self-compassion task led to increases in positive affect, more than the control task, but did not improve body dissatisfaction. In Study Two, the order of the intervention was reversed so that participants completed either the self-compassion or sorting task before scrolling through the thin-idealized images on Instagram. These results demonstrated that completing the self-compassion task before Instagram use prevented increases in body dissatisfaction, more than the control condition, but did not improve mood. Differential effects on mood were demonstrated for those on the extreme ends of trait self-compassion and physical appearance perfectionism. Appearance comparison tendency and thin ideal internalization were also examined as potential moderators with null findings. The results from these studies have the potential to increase women’s resilience against certain adverse effects of social media on body image.