Insecure attachment to parents in adolescent females leads to negative social comparison behaviours on social media, impacting self-esteem and mental health.
This literature review revolves around the topic: An Insecure Attachment Style to Parent’s Negatively Affects Social Comparison Behaviours on Social Media in adolescent females. To understand the perspectives that influence the findings from the collected articles, a summary of various theories and models are described. These theories include attachment theory, social learning theory, the social comparison theory, self-presentation theory, and the tripartite influence model. The research problem is outlined and is followed by the literature review. There are two main topics of the literature review that each contain subtopics. The primary topic is parent-child relationships and the use of social media. The subtopics are attachment styles and media use, role modeling and parental control on social media behaviours. The secondary topic is social comparison behaviours on social media with the subtopic’s social media norms, quantifiable feedback, and negative feedback on social media. Following the literature review is a summary of the main contributions to the main topic. After lies a brief overview of the implications from the contributions. To finish the paper, ideas for future research on this topic are stated, and last, the conclusion encapsulates the main take-aways of the literature review.
The purpose of this literature review is to explore this topic: An Insecure Attachment Style to Parent’s Negatively Affects Social Comparison Behaviours on Social Media in adolescent females
To address this main topic, there was a focus on finding quantitative and qualitative articles that investigated different patterns amongst the variables. None of the articles completely engulfed all the variables, therefore it was necessary to find articles that touched on as many elements as possible. There were two main research focuses. The first focus was finding studies that related attachment styles and behaviours to social media behaviours. The second focus was searching for the effects of social comparison on social media. There was additional effort to find studies that were conducted in different countries. The purpose of this was to compare and analyze variables and themes that would encapsulate the general adolescent population, increasing the chances of validity and reliability.
This topic is important because of the increase of social media use amongst adolescents. It is concerning how social media is affecting the development of adolescents. If there is more clarity on how social media negatively effects adolescents, then proper measures can be taken to protect them from those negative effects.
The organization of this paper is designed to understand the various parts of the topic, before summarizing the main gaps and need for further research. To provide context, the background and theories clarifies to provide transparency of how analyzations were influenced in the articles and in this paper. The primary focus is on parental attachments and social media use and is divided into two subthemes: attachment styles and media use, and role modeling and parental control on social media behaviours. The secondary focus is on the effects of social comparisons on social media, which is divided into three subthemes: social media norms, quantifiable feedback, and negative feedback on social media. Then the major contributions, its implications, and possibilities for future research are briefly described. The conclusion highlights the most important findings and analyzations to clearly identify what gaps need to be researched to more accurately address the main topic.
There are a few theories that provide insight on how to approach this topic. Attachment theory is one of the main crutches to understand interactions with social media. This theory claims there are systematic patterns of behaviours that manifest particular attachment styles (Badenes-Riberia et al., 2019; Levine & Stekel, 2016; Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019; Xie et al., 2019). The main styles include secure and insecure attachments (avoidant and resistant/ambivalent, and disorganized). Another important aspect of this theory is the concept of inner working models. This implies that an attachment style can be reflected in other aspects of life, including other relationships with people and ideologies. Adolescents with insecure attachment style’s tend to use social media more (Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019), be more involved with social comparison behaviours (Patton, 2014), and be affected negatively by social media (Bandenes-Riberia et al., 2019; Levine & Stekel, 2016; Patton, 2014; Xie et al., 2019).
Along with attachment styles, learned behaviours play a big role in social media use amongst adolescents. Social learning theory provides the groundworks to understand how and why behaviours are learned. Parents/guardians are central role models to children and adolescents. Therefore, how a parent interacts with technology and social media will be reflected in the behaviours of the adolescent (Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020; Xie et al., 2019). Peers are also important role models because social media behaviours are learned from the people using it (Bell, 2019; Burnette et al., 2017). Coincidingly, the tripartite influence model supports that parents, peers, and media effect the internalization of media, appearance-based social comparison behaviours, and body dissatisfaction (Bell, 2016; Burnette et al., 2017; Rousseau et al., 2017).
Social comparison theory is another main contributor to understanding people’s motivations and behaviours to make comparisons with others. It posits that there is a drive in each individual to evaluate themself by comparing similarities and differences in others (Bell, 2016; Chua & Chang, 2016; Patton et al., 2014; Rousseau et al., 2016). The point of this is to further understand themselves including their abilities and characteristics. There are two main comparisons that occur which are termed upward and downward comparisons. Upward comparison entails making self-improvements. The desire for downward comparison is to self-enhance oneself. This theory complements the self-presentation theory, which implies that adolescent’s aim to present their ideal self and to please their audience by meeting their expectations and preferences (Bell, 2016; Chua & Chang, 2016).
With the increased use of social media amongst adolescent’s, there is concern that it is negatively affecting their individual and social development. Adolescents who have insecure attachments to their parents are vulnerable to the negative effects of social media that involve social comparison behaviours. The question is, how do insecure parental attachment style’s negatively affect social comparison behaviours on social media? The answer to this question can provide insight on what factors to be aware of and what interventions can be implemented to help adolescents combat or protect themselves from being negatively affected by social media.
Attachment Styles and Media Use
Attachment styles influence many aspects of an adolescent’s development. Specifically, studies have found that insecure attachment styles with parents tend to have a large influence, especially with mothers (Patton et al., 2014). However, one study found that the mother-son relationship does not have much of an effect (Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019). This contradiction should be taken lightly because even though the sample size is large, the measurements used lack reliability. Parental attachment styles tend to determine a similar styles with friends (Levine & Stekel, 2016). This is likely because the inner working model has been mostly shaped at younger ages from relationships with their parents (Badenes-Riberia et al., 2019; Levine & Stekel, 2016; Xie et al., 2019). Adolescents with insecure attachment styles have thoughts and behaviours that tend to carry-over into online relationships (Levine & Stekel, 2016). People that have insecure attachments, also tend to use more social media (Badenes-Riberia et al., 2019), which, in turn, can negatively impact parental relationships (Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019). On the contrary, a secure attachment with a parents tends to act as a protective factor against higher phone use (Xie et al., 2019), higher social media use (Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019), media susceptibility, which leads to media internalization, negative social comparisons and body dissatisfaction (Patton et al., 2014), negative peer relationships (Badenes-Riberia et al., 2019; Levine & Stekel, 2016); Xie et al., 2019;), negative peer affiliation and deviant behaviours (Chua & Chang, 2016; Xie et al., 2019).
Adolescent females have been found to heavily use social media more than boys (Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019) and are more prone to the negative effects of social media through social comparison (Badenes-Riberia, 2019; Patton et al., 2014). However, adolescent boys have been found to be more susceptible to negative peer affiliation and deviant behaviours (Xie et al., 2019). An explanation to this is that when a risky photo is viewed, the cognitive control part of the brain deactivated. This indicates that it is possible that adolescents are more likely to engage in risky behaviours (Sherman et al., 2016). Further research is needed to investigate. It has also been discovered that socioeconomic status correlates to the type of attachment styles developed (Levine & Stekel, 2016). Additionally, age is another factor that has been studied to find correlations with attachment styles. Generally, age did not have a correlation with various attachment styles (Levine & Stekel, 2016; Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2019), but age did matter regarding the impact of the attachment style. Early adolescents tend to be more impacted by parent attachments, while older adolescents tend to be more impacted by peer attachments (Xie et al., 2019).
It is important to note that the experimental designs used to gather most of the information in this section were mostly conducted by quantitative correlational research designs. These designs used a sampling sizes between 321 and 9732. These results add weight to the external validity of the studies but cannot claim causal relationship. This further indicates that directionality of the variables cannot be known. Longitudinal studies and or quasi-experimental designs could be conducted to account for these pitfalls. Further,because of the large sample sizes, these patterns can reflect the average population, but do not account for individual differences. However, two generic qualitative studies echoed similar findings to some quantitative articles and expanded on them (Levine & Stekel, 2016; Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). This increases the internal validity of the measurements used to collect the data. Lastly, all studies used convenience sampling, which limits the conclusions to particular types of populations and decreases the external validity.
Role Modeling and Parental Control on Social Media Behaviour’s
There seems to be mixed findings on the effects of parental control of media use behaviours. More qualitative studies have acquired information on this topic than quantitative studies. Because qualitative studies offer rich details and are prone to researcher bias, it increases the chances for mixed reviews. Quantitative research is needed to find general patterns across larger populations.
Learned behaviour’s also affect individual and social development in adolescents. Parents tend to be the primary role models. Therefore, how an adolescent uses social media and how they are affected by aspects of social media can be partly learned from watching their parents interact with technology. For example, when a parent constantly uses their phone in front of the children and interrupts conversations, children are likely to imitate similar patterns in their relationships (Xie et al., 2019). Further, depending on what and how a mother posts on social media, what posts mothers like, and how mothers react to other’s posts will influence how the adolescent behaves and responds to social media (Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). In turn, these learned responses will reflect social comparison behaviours, beauty ideals, and interaction with others.
Generally, there is a negative effect on adolescent’s when parents implement too many restrictions on social media use, except for one female adolescent in a qualitative study (Burnette et al., 2017). She stated that her parents did not participate on social media and therefore had strict rules, and this influenced her to also not have interest. This one adolescent in one qualitative study does not hold any reliability nor validity. However, this opens research possibilities to investigate how the combination of role modeling and congruent rules influence adolescent media use behaviour.
Rules and regulations can a positive impact on adolescent’s when parents are involved with the media behaviour regulations (Burnette et al., 2017; Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). According to information obtained by various focus groups of mothers and daughters, both agree that is important to have flexible boundaries that change over time (Sanatarosa & Woodruff, 2020). Daughters expect to also be respected of their privacy and want their mothers to ask before posting pictures of them. Further, they do not think it is appropriate for mothers to punish daughters by posting embarrassing pictures and invoking shame, especially if consent was not given to post the photo. Although internal validity is high for this study, it is important to not generalize these findings. Again, quantitative methods could investigate these findings.
Social Media Norms
Much of the information in this section were collected from qualitative studies that consisted of individual semi-structured interviews (conducted by Levine & Stekel, 2016; Chua & Chang., 2016; Singleton et al., 2016) and focus groups (conducted by Bell, 2019; Burnette et al., 2017; Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). Most studies used thematic analysis, except for Singleton et al. (2016), who used grounded theory methodology analysis. This implies that most norms reflect the themes found according to the researcher(s) analysis.
Social media norms are important to understand because they provide the grounds for social comparison and how they can affect adolescents. Self-presentation on social media can require extensive time and effort. Many norms are configured by peer’s responses (or lack of) (Singleton et al., 2016). It is important to post things that are authentic and reflect the true self (Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020; Burnette et al., 2017). Often multiple photos are photos are taken to be able to choose the most authentic expression to share. Photo editing and filters are regularly used to express individuality and gain popularity. Being seen as attractive is valued in the social media community. Staging puts into consideration where a photo is taken, lighting conditions, how and what props are used, and how a person poses all convey different attributes to a person’s personality (Bell, 2016; Chua & Chang, 2016). Furthermore, there are acceptable and unacceptable behaviours that reflect not only authenticity, but also etiquette behaviour (Burnette et al., 2017; Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). Unacceptable behaviour includes having more than one account, repeating posts, too many selfies, excessive posting, being artificial, seeking praise, and more.
Beauty standards are reflected and reinforced by mass media (Patton et al., 2014), peers posts and feedback of others posts (Chua & Chang; Bell, 2016), and mother’s perceptions and responses to beauty standards (Santarossa & Woodruff, 2020). Although adolescent females tend to be more concerned about their appearance (Bell, 2016; Rousseau et al., 2017; Singleton et al., 2016), males and females engage in appearance enhancing techniques (Bell, 2016).
There seems to be double standards and contradicting values regarding authenticity and appropriate behaviours. This could be a result of findings from the pitfalls and limitations of qualitative studies. One of those pitfalls are the possibility for researcher bias involving the conduction of the study and the themes drawn from their data. Additionally, focus groups and interviews that discussed specific norms, appropriate behaviours, and what defines authenticity are subject to social desirability, group think, lack of trust, and the researcher’s communication and observation abilities. These factors may alter perceptions and disguise truths, but it the limitations could also stem from studying abstract constructs. Moreover, it is important to note and further expand on that fact that many of these behaviours involved with social media are socially learned.
Quantifiable Feedback
Adolescent’s behaviours on social media are influenced by peer feedback, social comparison, and individual needs and desires. There are various features on different social media platforms that are quantifiable and directly affect behaviours and perceptions. The main features are number of likes and number of followers (Chua & Chang, 2016). These features can elicit positive or negative consequences. For example, the number likes on a photo can instantly boost a person’s confidence, affirm choices, and confirm social approval (Bell, 2016; Chua & Chang; Sherman et al., 2016). In addition, the act of liking and following are behaviours strategically used to give informative feedback (Chua & Chang, 2016). This essentially shapes image-sharing practices. It also is how individuals learn what is acceptable and not acceptable between peers.
A quantitative study supports these claims as it found that different parts of the brain were activated during the process of liking or not liking a photo, and seeing others like your photos (Sherman et al., 2016). When someone sees their own photo liked, the reward system area in their brain activates the most. Moreover, this also occurred when a participant’s photo had more likes than a few. Both phenomenon rewards and motivated self-presentation. This study also found that adolescents are more likely to like a photo that has received more likes from peers. However, this study has a small sample and should not be generalized. Replication studies are needed to further support this claim.
Negative Impacts of Social Comparison on Social Media
Negative impacts of social comparison on social media are a main concern for adolescent development. Upward comparison is more likely to happen when peers have more likes or peers are seen as more pretty (Chua & Chang, 2016). Downward comparison happens when an adolescent sees a peer with fewer likes. The underlying reasons for self-presentation are anchored on feeling insecure and having low self-esteem. Therefore, when there are negative social comparison behaviours, this can elicit more negative effects. These claims require quantitative support to increase reliability.
Because attractiveness is one of the main motivators to post a photo, a lot of negative effects have to do with beauty standards and body dissatisfaction (Bell, 2016, Burnette et al., 2016). This can lead adolescents to internalize media and to be at risk for disordered eating, onset or worsening of depression, and more suicide attempts (Patton et al., 2014). However, media literacy and parental and school involvement can act as a protective factor against social comparison and negative effects of social media in general (Burnedette et al., 2017) Mothers also play a role in reinforcing beauty standards when they write only appearance related comments or like certain photos (Sanatarossa & Woodruff, 2020). It has also been discovered that female adolescents have deliberately not liked a photo or followed someone to avoid admitting and reinforcing that another person is pretty and popular (Chua & Chang, 2016). Even though there seem to be a lot of female references, males are also negatively influenced through body image and self-perceived attractiveness (Rousseau et al., 2017). A possible reason for more female examples, could be because there are more qualitative studies that only have girl participants.
There are major contributions that provide insight on the main topic. The first is that insecure attachment styles with parent’s have been linked to similar attachments with friends online. However, early adolescent tend to be more influenced by parental attachments in relation to the use of technology, while adolescent are more affected by peer relationships. Moreover, the maternal relationship seems to have the largest influence on social media behaviours and perceptions. It is also beneficial to know various tactics used to achieve certain beauty standards, how the behaviours are reinforced, and how those beauty standards are possibly constructed. Furthermore, the finding that media literacy and parental role modeling and school involvement can act as a protective factor against the negative aspects of social media.
These major contributions implicate that parents and peers have a large influence on how adolescents engage with social media and are negatively affected through social comparisons. Negative social comparisons seem to stem from appearance-based comparison and identity development, which implies that this is an area that is in need for more attention. Further, there seems to be more qualitative research conducted with just the female adolescent population. Although the qualitative studies were insightful and opened up ideas for quantitative research, the findings cannot be generalized. Quantitative research is further needed to investigate qualitative findings.
One of the main areas in need of research is qualitative studies that involve interviews and focus studies with just the adolescent male population. Particularly with insecure attachment styles to parents and the main motivations for social comparison on social media. This rich insight could help guide quantitative research study designs to account for the differences and discover more accurate findings. Additionally, more quantitative longitudinal research studies are needed to identity how and when peer attachments become more influential than parental attachments regarding social media behaviours. More longitudinal studies are needed in general for both qualitative and quantitative studies to investigate how long negative effects from social comparison on social media last and how these effects impact other aspects of their emerging adult lives.
To understand various components of how insecure attachment styles to parents negatively affect social comparison behaviours on social media, this topic themes were divided into two main focuses. These include parent-child relationships and social media use and social comparison behaviours on social media. These main focuses were broken down to smaller categories including attachment styles and media use, role modeling and parental control, social media norms, quantifiable feedback, and negative impacts of social comparison on social media. The main contributions revolved around how parental insecure attachments largely influences social media use and behaviours. It also conveyed that social comparison on social media tends to be anchored to appearance-based comparisons. More research is needs to further understand the differences of male adolescent attachments with parents and peers, and social comparison behaviours.
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Xie, X., Chen, W., Zhu, X., & He, D. (2019). Parents’ phubbing increases Adolescents’ Mobile phone addiction: Roles of parent-child attachment, deviant peers, and gender. Children and Youth Services Review, 105, 104426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104426
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