Unraveling the positive and negative roles of positive body-focused social media interactions in adolescents’ body image

Despite the increasing circulation of potentially positive body-focused social media content, it remains unclear how interactions with such content relate to adolescents’ positive and negative body image. This cross-sectional study (n = 690 adolescents, Mage = 16.41, SDage = .98, 55.96% girls) examined the relations between interactions with potentially positive content (i.e., exposure and posting of Body Positive (BoPo) content, receiving positive appearance comments from peers on social media), susceptibility factors (i.e., aesthetic hypersensitivity, sex), a positive body image component (i.e., body appreciation) and negative body image components (i.e., self-objectification, internalization of appearance ideals, appearance comparisons with peers). Receiving positive appearance comments was associated with higher levels of body self-love, self-objectification, internalization and appearance comparisons. Moreover, there was a positive association between BoPo posting and negative body image components (i.e., higher levels of self-objectification, internalization, appearance comparisons). Aesthetic hypersensitivity and sex appeared to moderate some of the examined relationships. These findings indicate that positive-intended content may relate to the development of a positive body image, but also to a negative body image. Implications are discussed.