Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media
BackgroundSocial networking sites may be a convenient, accessible and low-cost option for delivering health information at scale to postpartum women. However, social media use is associated with decreased body satisfaction and may contribute to psychological ill-health. Our study aimed to determine...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Digital Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1379337/full |
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| author | Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Maddison Henderson Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Lynne Roberts Lynne Roberts Heike Roth Heike Roth Heike Roth |
| author_facet | Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Maddison Henderson Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Lynne Roberts Lynne Roberts Heike Roth Heike Roth Heike Roth |
| author_sort | Megan L. Gow |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundSocial networking sites may be a convenient, accessible and low-cost option for delivering health information at scale to postpartum women. However, social media use is associated with decreased body satisfaction and may contribute to psychological ill-health. Our study aimed to determine whether exposure to body-focused imagery, typical of imagery targeting postpartum women on Instagram, is associated with a reduction in state body satisfaction and state body appreciation. Secondly, we aimed to determine whether including postpartum-health-focused imagery, in conjunction with body-focused imagery, is associated with improving state body satisfaction/appreciation, compared with no postpartum health content.MethodsA single blinded quasi-experimental survey study, recruiting women who had given birth in the previous 2-years, asked participants about key demographic information, social media use and assessed thin-ideal internalization and media appearance pressures using validated tools. Participants were then exposed to either (1) 15 body-focused images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity; (2) as per (1) PLUS 5 postpartum-health-focused images; or (3) as per (1) PLUS 15 postpartum-health-focused images. State body satisfaction/appreciation were assessed before and after image exposure.ResultsState body satisfaction/appreciation did not change from pre- to post-image exposure in any groups and measures were not different between groups at any time point.DiscussionShort-term exposure to body-focused imagery typical of Instagram content targeting postpartum women may not alter state body satisfaction or state body appreciation. Furthermore, incorporating postpartum-health-focused imagery did not alter results. Further research investigating whether an intervention providing health information to postpartum women via social media platforms improves health outcomes may be warranted. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b7260ac18d7545d29ae32bcfef05ace6 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-253X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-b7260ac18d7545d29ae32bcfef05ace62025-08-20T02:47:50ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Digital Health2673-253X2025-03-01710.3389/fdgth.2025.13793371379337Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social mediaMegan L. Gow0Megan L. Gow1Megan L. Gow2Megan L. Gow3Maddison Henderson4Amanda Henry5Amanda Henry6Amanda Henry7Lynne Roberts8Lynne Roberts9Heike Roth10Heike Roth11Heike Roth12The George Institute for Global Health, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Population Health, UNSW Medicine and Health, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaThe University of Sydney Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaWomen's and Children's Health, St George Hospital, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaThe University of Sydney Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaThe George Institute for Global Health, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaWomen's and Children's Health, St George Hospital, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaDiscipline of Women’s Health, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine and Health, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaWomen's and Children's Health, St George Hospital, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSt George and Sutherland Clinical Campus, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine and Health, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaWomen's and Children's Health, St George Hospital, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaDiscipline of Women’s Health, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine and Health, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaFaculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaBackgroundSocial networking sites may be a convenient, accessible and low-cost option for delivering health information at scale to postpartum women. However, social media use is associated with decreased body satisfaction and may contribute to psychological ill-health. Our study aimed to determine whether exposure to body-focused imagery, typical of imagery targeting postpartum women on Instagram, is associated with a reduction in state body satisfaction and state body appreciation. Secondly, we aimed to determine whether including postpartum-health-focused imagery, in conjunction with body-focused imagery, is associated with improving state body satisfaction/appreciation, compared with no postpartum health content.MethodsA single blinded quasi-experimental survey study, recruiting women who had given birth in the previous 2-years, asked participants about key demographic information, social media use and assessed thin-ideal internalization and media appearance pressures using validated tools. Participants were then exposed to either (1) 15 body-focused images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity; (2) as per (1) PLUS 5 postpartum-health-focused images; or (3) as per (1) PLUS 15 postpartum-health-focused images. State body satisfaction/appreciation were assessed before and after image exposure.ResultsState body satisfaction/appreciation did not change from pre- to post-image exposure in any groups and measures were not different between groups at any time point.DiscussionShort-term exposure to body-focused imagery typical of Instagram content targeting postpartum women may not alter state body satisfaction or state body appreciation. Furthermore, incorporating postpartum-health-focused imagery did not alter results. Further research investigating whether an intervention providing health information to postpartum women via social media platforms improves health outcomes may be warranted.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1379337/fullpostpartumsocial mediaInstagramhealth promotionbody imagebody satisfaction |
| spellingShingle | Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Megan L. Gow Maddison Henderson Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Amanda Henry Lynne Roberts Lynne Roberts Heike Roth Heike Roth Heike Roth Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media Frontiers in Digital Health postpartum social media health promotion body image body satisfaction |
| title | Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| title_full | Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| title_fullStr | Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| title_short | Impact on women's body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| title_sort | impact on women s body satisfaction of exposure to postpartum imagery on social media |
| topic | postpartum social media health promotion body image body satisfaction |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1379337/full |
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