Project Abstract/Summary
Social media use has transformed adolescents’ interpersonal interactions, with important implications for body image. The majority of U.S. teen girls experience body image concerns, which include body dissatisfaction, body shame, and self-objectification. Body image concerns can negatively impact adolescent development, with increased risk for mental health symptoms and low self-esteem. Social media use likely exacerbates body image concerns for many adolescent girls, but the mechanisms are not yet well understood. The overarching goal of this NSF CAREER project is to understand how, when, and for whom specific social media experiences affect body image, in a diverse sample of adolescent girls. In the context of heightened public discourse regarding adolescent social media use, we expect the findings of this study to have broad impacts for science and society. Overall, this project has the potential to provide transformative insights into adolescent social media use and body image, as well as in-depth research training for the next generation of developmental scientists.
During a developmental period characterized by heightened self-consciousness and need for peer approval, social media apps provide adolescents with an unprecedented context for self-presentation and social comparison. In recent years, a growing body of research has documented connections between specific social media experiences and body image concerns. However, most of this work has focused on adult women rather than adolescent girls, without attention to unique adolescent developmental processes. This project utilizes a longitudinal, multi-method approach to investigate how specific appearance-related social media experiences affect body image concerns among adolescent girls via a combination of 1) eye-tracking methods to assess attention to social media stimuli, 2) longitudinal surveys of social media experiences and body image concerns, and 3) ecological momentary assessments, in which adolescents are prompted to report real-time experiences related to social media and body image in their daily lives. Guided by developmental and social psychological theories and methods, this project examines whether specific social media experiences predict body image concerns over both short-term (i.e., hourly) and longer-term (18 months) periods in a diverse sample of adolescent girls. Based on prior research and theory, this project focuses on cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, and emotional risk factors related to social media use.
This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Principal Investigator
Sophia Choukas-Bradley – University of Pittsburgh located in PITTSBURGH, PA
Co-Principal Investigators
Funders
Funding Amount
$277,496.00
Project Start Date
09/01/2024
Project End Date
08/31/2029
Will the project remain active for the next two years?
The project has more than two years remaining
Source: National Science Foundation
Please be advised that recent changes in federal funding schemes may have impacted the project’s scope and status.
Updated: April, 2025