Introduction: Recent reports have called for further research on young people’s use of social media and the associations with their mental health. In aesthetic sports such as dance, there is emphasis on body-shape and appearance. This study is the first to investigate Instagram use in young dancers and non-dancers and its relationship with self-objectification, body surveillance, disordered eating and depressed mood.
Method: Eighty five dancers and 91 non-dancers aged between 14 -26 completed self-report measures of social media use, self-objectification, body surveillance, disordered eating and depressed mood.
Results: Instagram was the most frequently used social media platform, with participants spending 30 minutes per day on Instagram and checking Instagram every hour. Dancers used Instagram more than non-dancers. Dancers reported different motivations for using Instagram, namely information sharing, self-documentation and self-expression, as well as for self-presentation activities and looking at photographs of others. There was no significant relationship between any of the body related, disordered eating or depressed mood variables and Instagram use for dancers. In the whole sample, participants with higher body surveillance used Instagram for self-presentation activities, those with higher disordered eating used it more for comparing self-photographs to photographs of others and those with higher levels of depressed mood used it more for passing time.
Conclusion: Dancers appear to use Instagram more and for different purposes to non-dancers, including self-presentation. Instagram use was not associated with any of the psychological vulnerabilities measured in this study for dancers, although some associations were found for the whole sample. This is a positive finding for dancers and suggests active use of Instagram may not be so troublesome in this group. Other implications of the findings and future directions are discussed within.
