Growing evidence links adolescent social media use to mental health difficulties, yet most research is cross-sectional, assumes all social media activities are equally harmful, and rarely examines multiple forms of psychopathology. This longitudinal study tested reciprocal relations between mental health symptoms (social anxiety, body dissatisfaction, depression) and appearance-based social media behaviours (upward appearance comparisons and appearance investment). Participants were 1942 adolescents (grades 7–11; W1 M age = 13.97, SD = 1.24; W2 M age = 14.51, SD = 1.19) from four Australian schools. Bidirectional prospective relationships emerged between upward comparisons and all three mental health symptoms. Furthermore, Wave 1 body dissatisfaction and social anxiety predicted greater Wave 2 appearance investment, and more Wave 1 appearance investment predicted increases in Wave 2 depressive symptoms. Findings highlight upward comparisons as both a predictor and consequence of poor mental health and suggest appearance investment may link body dissatisfaction and social anxiety to depression.
Ragg et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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