Research Project

Psychological and social pressure can make adolescents more vulnerable to self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, including non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation (SI). Simultaneously, adolescents place a greater emphasis on peer feedback, which can give rise to body disturbances and, subsequently, disordered eating behaviors. Crucially, comments on social media (SM) may encourage both appearance comparisons and appearance consciousness, potentially contributing to eating pathology. Although previous literature has found associations between disordered eating, NSSI, and SI, most previous studies only examine SM by measuring SM use duration. There have been little previous studies examining specific SM features, and no studies examining the role of positive and negative appearance-related comments on SM posts in such relationships. Thus, the objective of the current study was to replicate previous findings to confirm the associations between disordered eating behaviors, NSSI, and SI, and to explore whether positive and negative appearance-related SM comments impacted these relationships. Participants included 165 adolescents who completed an online cross-sectional self-report survey. Findings from the current study confirm the association between disordered eating and NSSI/SI beyond the effects of social media use duration and appearance comments, and suggest that receiving neither positive nor negative appearance comments on SM impacts the relationships between primary study constructs. Future research is needed to build upon this finding and explore how other SM features may play a role in these relationships.