Pursuing Perfection or Striving Towards “Superwoman”? Investigating the Roles of Social Media and Individual Differences in Eating Disorders

The prevalence of eating disorders continues to increase, particularly among young women. Prior research has identified social media use as one risk factor for eating disorders, along with trait perfectionism and the endorsement of unrealistic ideals pertaining to women’s ability to achieve success across multiple social roles. The present research investigated the extent to which endorsement of unrealistic standards for women across domains (i.e., the “Superwoman” ideal) and social media use interactively predict body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in young women. It also investigated whether endorsement of the Superwoman ideal uniquely predicts these outcomes over and above trait perfectionism. In an online survey of 18-25 year-old cisgender women (N = 405), greater social media use was linked with increased body dissatisfaction, and both stronger endorsement of the Superwoman ideal and greater social media use were associated with greater disordered eating. There was no evidence of an interaction between these predictors. Furthermore, whereas trait perfectionism uniquely predicted body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, endorsement of the Superwoman ideal uniquely predicted body dissatisfaction in the opposite direction as predicted and did not uniquely predict disordered eating. Implications, limitations, and exploratory findings of the present study are discussed.