The mental health crisis among youth and young adults has prompted growing concern over the psychological impacts of social media use (SMU), particularly on image-based platforms like Instagram. However, there is still relatively little known about how specific psychological factors come into play and interact on specific platforms to affect young adults’ mental health and wellbeing. In the present study, we tested how individual differences in contingent self-worth (CSW), social comparison tendencies, and motives for Instagram use relate to health and wellbeing outcomes, including measures of perceived stress, fatigue, anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as indicators of overall wellbeing such as life satisfaction. Across two independent samples—college students ( N = 250) and a general young adult population ( N = 458)—we conducted preregistered analyses in which we examined associations between Instagram-specific CSW, upward social comparison behaviors on Instagram, and health and wellbeing indicators. We also tested whether various motives for Instagram use might moderate these relationships. Findings generally supported a priori hypotheses, indicating that, across both samples, higher Instagram-based CSW and greater upward social comparison tendencies on Instagram were associated with poorer mental health, including elevated stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Additionally, some of these relationships were moderated by motives for Instagram use, such that multiple motives interacted with upward social comparison tendencies to predict worse mental health, as indicated by more depression symptoms. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of CSW, upward social comparison, and usage motives when considering associations between SMU and wellbeing. They also highlight the need for personalized interventions that target risk factors such as maladaptive self-worth contingencies and social comparison behaviors in digital environments.
Lopez et al. (Mon,) studied this question.