Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2025
Abstract
With the abundance of social media content that promotes unrealistic beauty standards, there are growing concerns about the potential negative impact of social media use on body image satisfaction. While some studies highlight negative associations, others present null effects, pointing to methodological limitations like biased and unreliable self-reported screen time measures and a focus on singular platforms. Addressing these gaps, our study employed a daily diary method to objectively measure social media screen time across six major platforms (Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook), alongside daily body image dissatisfaction among 252 young adults (Mage = 21.67 years, 67.77% female) over 7 days. Through multilevel modeling, our analysis revealed no significant within- or between-person associations between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction, a finding consistent across all platforms. In addition, the lack of association between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction was consistent across several exploratory moderators such as sex, self-esteem, and perfectionistic self-presentation. The current study did not find strong evidence supporting the concerns surrounding the potential detrimental link between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction.
Keywords
social media screen time, body image, daily diary, multilevel modeling
Discipline
Social Media | Social Psychology | Social Psychology and Interaction
Publication
Social Media + Society
Volume
11
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
18
Identifier
10.1177/2056305125131
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
GOH, Adalia Y. H., HARTANTO, Andree, KASTURIRATNA, K. T. A. Sandeeshwara, & MAJEED, Nadyanna M..(2025). No consistent evidence for between- and within-person associations between objective social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction: Insights from a daily diary study. Social Media + Society, 11(1), 1-18.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4177
Copyright Owner and License
Authors-CC-BY-NC
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313855
Included in
Social Media Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
