Do appearance comparisons mediate the effects of thinspiration and fitspiration on body dissatisfaction, happiness, and disordered eating urges in women's daily lives?

Magic mirror, who is the fairest one of all? testing the mediating effect between short-video social media exposure and appearance anxiety

Our aim was to examine the relationship between short-video social media exposure and appearance anxiety among female youth, as well as the serial mediation of capitalization of sexual attractiveness and upward social media appearance comparison. In this study, 585 female youths from China were selected as participants. The Short-Video Social Media Exposure Scale, Capitalization of Sexual Attractiveness Scale, Upward Social Media Appearance Comparison Scale, and Appearance Anxiety Scale were used to measure participants. The findings revealed that the short-video social media exposure positively predicted appearance anxiety. Additionally, the capitalization of sexual attractiveness and upward social media appearance comparison mediated the relationship between short-video social media exposure and appearance anxiety, respectively. Furthermore, the capitalization of sexual attractiveness and upward social media appearance comparison also had a serial mediation effect. The result explained that short-video social media exposure not only predicts appearance anxiety through the mediating effects of capitalization of sexual attractiveness and upward social media appearance comparison, but also by a serial mediation of capitalization of sexual attractiveness and upward social media appearance comparison.

Self-objectification and depressive symptoms among young Chinese women: The roles of appearance comparison on social networking sites and regulatory emotional self-efficacy

The present study examined the relationship between self-objectification and depressive symptoms among young Chinese women (N = 324), and investigated the roles of appearance comparison on social networking sites (SNS) and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in this relationship. The results showed that self-objectification was associated with depressive symptoms, and the relationship was mediated by appearance comparison on SNS. The study also found that regulatory emotional self-efficacy moderated the indirect relationship between self-objectification and depressive symptoms via appearance comparison on SNS. These findings suggest that regulatory emotional self-efficacy plays a buffering role between appearance comparison on SNS and depressive symptoms. Based on our results, interventions that address young Chinese women' depressive symptoms could include reducing self-objectification, decreasing appearance comparison on SNS, and improving regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Our research provides new insights into the interactions between self-objectification and the risk to women's mental health.

Using Ecological Momentary Assessments to Study How Daily Fluctuations in Psychological States Impact Stress, Well-Being, and Health

Despite great interest in how dynamic fluctuations in psychological states such as mood, social safety, energy, present-focused attention, and burnout impact stress, well-being, and health, most studies examining these constructs use retrospective assessments with relatively long time-lags. Here, we discuss how ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) address methodological issues associated with retrospective reports to help reveal dynamic associations between psychological states at small timescales that are often missed in stress and health research. In addition to helping researchers characterize daily and within-day fluctuations and temporal dynamics between different health-relevant processes, EMAs can elucidate mechanisms through which interventions reduce stress and enhance well-being. EMAs can also be used to identify changes that precede critical health events, which can in turn be used to deliver ecological momentary interventions, or just-in-time interventions, to help prevent such events from occurring. To enable this work, we provide examples of scales and single-item questions used in EMA studies, recommend study designs and statistical approaches that capitalize on EMA data, and discuss limitations of EMA methods. In doing so, we aim to demonstrate how, when used carefully, EMA methods are well poised to greatly advance our understanding of how intrapersonal dynamics affect stress levels, well-being, and human health.