1. Kenny C. Chee & Marian M. Morry
Please “Like” my Selfie: How Body Image, Attachment, and Facebook Influence your Emotions and Relationship
Kenny C. Chee & Marian M. Morry
University of Manitoba
Department of Psychology
Measurements:
Attachment Dimensions (Brennan et al., 1998; Anxiety α = .92; Avoidance: α = .94)
Body Image (Cooper et al., 1987;  = .97)
Facebook Behaviors Questionnaire (FBQ; Meier & Gray, 2014; α = .90)
Emotions (Watson et al., 1988; Negative emotion: α = .89 )
Relationship Satisfaction (Murray et al., 2002; α= .86 )
Relationship Commitment (Murray et al., 2001; α = .93 )
Bootstrapping Mediation Analyses (H3):
Hayes (2013) mediation model 4
Avoidance dimension, Perceptions of Facebook “Likes” and Facebook Use Behavior were entered as covariates
Introduction & Hypotheses
Attachment styles: develop from ones childhood and persist into adulthood (Hazen & Shaver, 1987)
Two attachment dimensions: (a) Anxiety (b) Avoidance
Anxiety attachment related to poor body image and negative emotions (Cash et al., 2004) and maladaptive Facebook use (Chen et al., 2012).
Teenagers and young adults seek support through Facebook (Chua & Chang, 2015), but experience negative emotions if support is not received (Frison & Eggermont, 2015).
Negative emotions impact romantic relationship negatively.
Hypotheses:
H1: Perceptions of Facebook “Likes”  emotions
H2: Perceptions of Facebook “Likes” interact with anxiety and body image to predict emotions
H3: Emotions mediate anxiety to predict relationship satisfaction and commitment when Facebook use behaviors are included
Positive
Emotions
.58**
-.07
Anxiety
Attachment
-.07
Satisfaction
Results & Discussion
Negative
Emotions
-.15**
-.55**
Regression Analyses:
H1 not supported: the main effect of the perceptions of Facebook “Likes” did not predict emotions
H2 partially supported: the Anxiety X Perceptions of Facebook “Likes” X Body Image interaction predicted negative emotions (β = -.13, p < .001) only
Split Files Analyses:
We split the files by the perceptions of Facebook “Likes” conditions to further analyze negative emotions
In Facebook “Likes” are important conditions: anxiety interacted with body image to predict negative emotions (β = -.18, p < .001), In Facebook “Likes” are not important conditions: only the interaction of anxiety, avoidance, body image predicted negative emotions (β = -.15, p < .05)
Figure 1. Mediation analysis of the effects of anxiety and emotions on relationship satisfaction ** p < .001
Negative emotions mediated the anxiety dimension to predict relationship satisfaction (see Figure 1).
Anxiety had a direct effect on commitment (β = -.15 , p < .001)
Facebook Use Behaviors significantly predicted commitment (β = -.03 , p = .002)
Discussion:
Participants who perceived Facebook “Likes” as important experienced more negative emotions if they had poor body image and were high in anxious attachment compared to those who do not perceived Facebook “Likes” as important
Negative emotions influenced relationship quality
Facebook use in general influenced relationship commitment
Overall, our findings indicated that the perceptions of Facebook “Likes” interacted with body image and attachment dimensions to predict one’s negative emotions
Social validation from social media (i.e., Facebook or Instagram) are an important factor for one’s emotions and relationship quality
Method
312 undergraduate female students recruited from introductory psychology (Caucasian, 78.1%; heterosexual, 94.5%; exclusively dating, 82.3%)
Randomly assigned to read a fake news article about Facebook to manipulate participants’ :
Perceptions of Facebook “Likes” are important
Perceptions of Facebook “Likes” are not important
Poster Presented in SPSP 2017, San Antonio, Texas, USA
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