Understanding and Reducing Appearance Anxiety for Social Media Users: A Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment and Ecological Momentary Intervention
Rong Chen, Jin Tong Bai, Yue Liu · 2026
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Description
Rong Chen, Jin Tong Bai, and Yue Liu present a 2026 two-part study on appearance anxiety tied to social media use, the distress users feel about how they look online. Little was known about how the anxiety moves day to day or how to lower it. Their method tracked people in daily life rather than in a lab.
In the first study, 206 people answered daily surveys for twenty days. Anxiety tended to carry over to the next day, and heavy anxiety and heavy social media use clustered on the same days. Self-compassion and a healthier lifestyle each weakened that same-day link. In the second study, 200 people took part, and one group read self-compassion statements daily. That group showed lower average appearance anxiety and steadier levels than before. The authors back brief daily self-compassion prompts as a practical intervention.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Rong Chen, Jin Tong Bai, Yue Liu |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 67950 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |