Picture perfect during a pandemic? Body image concerns and depressive symptoms in U.S. adolescent girls during the COVID-19 lockdown
Open accessAbstract
The stay-at-home orders of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted U.S. adolescents’ lives in numerous ways during the spring of 2020, including substantial changes to in-person routines and increased reliance on digital media. For adolescent girls, stay-at-home practices may have implications for body image concerns. In this research brief, we examine adolescent girls’ pandemic-related body image concerns and longitudinal associations with depressive symptoms. The sample included 93 U.S. adolescent girls (Mage = 15.01; 68.8% White), with approximately 2/3 at temperamental risk for depression. Participants self-reported their depressive symptoms and pandemic-related body image concerns via online surveys at three assessments: Time 1 occurred in April/May 2020, approximately one month into stay-at-home orders, followed by two-week and seven-month follow-up assessments. Two pandemic-related body image concerns were assessed: (1) concerns about disrupted appearance-management routines and (2) evaluating one’s appearance on video-chat. Both forms of pandemic-related body image concerns predicted depressive symptoms two weeks later, and concerns about disrupted routines also predicted depressive symptoms seven months later. In an era of social distancing, frequent technology-based interactions, and disrupted routines, future work should continue to investigate adolescents’ body image concerns and the implications for longer-term mental health outcomes.
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At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. adolescent girls who evaluated their own appearance during video-chat interactions were more likely to report depressive symptoms concurrently and two weeks later.
“For example, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that U.S. adolescent girls who evaluated their own appearance during video-chat interactions (e.g., Zoom) were more likely to report depressive symptoms concurrently and two weeks later (Choukas-Bradley et al., 2022).”
From The Perfect Storm: A Developmental-Sociocultural Framework for the Role of Social Media in Adolescent Girls' Body Image Concerns and Mental Health. (2022) · cites this paper as Choukas-Bradley et al., 2022
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Choukas-Bradley, S., Maheux, A. J., Roberts, S. R., Hutchinson, E. A., Lu, C., Ladouceur, C. D., & Silk, J. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Delaware, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Newark, Delaware, United States
- University of Delaware (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Children and Media
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-02-15
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 481-492
- ISSN
- 1748-2798 (ISSN-L)
- 1748-2801
- PMC
- PMC9793862
- OpenAlex
- W4213025229
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 5.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Children and Media (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1940700)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (KL2 TR001856)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH103241)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- body image concern, depressive symptoms, adolescent girls, COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home orders, digital media, social distancing, adolescent mental health
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