Linking negative social comparison and appearance-related thinking on social media to daily fluctuations in negative self-schema in college students: A proof-of-concept study

As adolescents enter college, they are tasked with navigating complex new social environments in which they must develop their identities. Despite the ubiquity of social media use in college students, the impact of social media on identity and self-schema development is rarely studied. This proof-of-concept study examined whether engaging in negative social comparison on social media or thinking about one’s attractiveness on social media is proximally linked to more negative self-schemas in late adolescence/early adulthood. Undergraduate students (N = 49; M age = 19.41) completed up to four daily ecological momentary assessment (EMA) prompts over 15 days, reporting on their social media behaviors throughout the day and self-schemas each evening. Multilevel models were used to test within-person daily associations between engaging in negative social comparison while using social media or thinking about one’s attractiveness on social media and negative self-schemas. As hypothesized, significant within-person associations were found for both social media behaviors, such that when participants compared themselves negatively to others or thought about their attractiveness on social media that day, they reported more negative self-schemas at the end of the day. Engaging in negative social comparison and thinking about one’s attractiveness in photos on social media may be linked to poorer mental health outcomes in late adolescence through effects on developing self-schemas, though larger studies are needed to replicate these associations and test mechanistic associations with mental health outcomes.