Exploring resilience as a moderator of social media appearance activity and body image concerns in adolescents

Considering their developmental sensitivities to peer approval and heightened self-consciousness, many adolescents experience body image concerns when engaging with visual social media. Using a sample of 927 adolescents aged 15–19 (M = 16.97, SD = 1.19; 59% girls, 38% boys, 3% other), this study explored whether resilience to idealized media bodies and to negative appearance feedback moderated the links between social media appearance activity, body esteem, and self-objectification, with the expectation that such resilience would buffer against low body esteem and heightened self-objectification. Resilience to negative appearance feedback did not significantly moderate these associations. In contrast, resilience to media ideals did, but in an unexpected direction. Adolescents with higher-than-average resilience who engaged more frequently in appearance activity reported greater self-objectification and lower body esteem, whereas those with lower-than-average resilience reported the opposite relationships, showing less self-objectification and higher body esteem. These results emerged for both girls and boys. Considering the exploratory nature of these results, they suggest that resilience may play a more intricate role in adolescents' social media appearance activity and body image. Future studies should investigate this idea further, including the reverse pathway where resilience may build up from exposure to idealization on social media.