Person-specific effects of women’s social media use on body image concerns: an intensive longitudinal study of daily life

Abstract Informed by social media and body image scholarship, the present study examined how women’s person-specific daily social media usage is related to person-specific deviations in their body image satisfaction. We conducted a 30-day intensive longitudinal study capturing 90 U.S. women’s daily social media use via mobile data donations and body image self-assessments (90 participants × 30 days = 2,700 possible measurement occasions). Using dynamic structural equation modeling with random effects, results revealed that for the typical individual, on days when women spent more hours on social media than they normally did, they experienced lower body image satisfaction that day. However, there was variability in person-specific daily effects, indicating that not all women experienced this negative daily effect. Although on average women had a small negative daily effect, we also found that women who (a) were heavier social media users throughout the month, (b) binged on (or abstained from) social media for consecutive days, and/or (c) exhibited inconsistent (i.e., volatile) social media usage day to day, may be less susceptible to daily negative effects of social media use on their body image satisfaction. We discuss how our findings advance our theoretical understanding of social media self-effects and women’s body image, as well as underscore the importance of studying person-specific effects over time.