IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i3p1608-d738969.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Picturing Mental Health on Instagram: Insights from a Quantitative Study Using Different Content Formats

Author

Listed:
  • Isabell Koinig

    (Department of Media and Communications, University of Klagenfurt, 9400 Klagenfurt, Austria)

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has changed individual lives to the core. Through national curfews and social distancing, individuals’ social lives changed and led to increased levels of stress and mental health problems. As another consequence, communication, especially among young people, has shifted to social networking sites, where particularly young adults sought help for their mental health problems. In recent years, Instagram has received recognition for its health-enhancing potentials. On this social networking site, more than 1 billion users worldwide post 500 million stories and images per day. Methods: During COVID-19, increasing mental health incidences were reported throughout the world, and have led mental health influencers to gain in relevance. The proposed study is based on a quantitative survey. In order to test how different content formats utilized by mental health influencers —motivational quotes, comics, or influencer posts—are evaluated by Instagram users, a cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in April 2021. Data collection was based on convenience sampling. In total, 532 Austrian respondents between 16 and 34 years of age participated in the survey. Results: Overall, the content that received the most favorable evaluations were both the motivational quote (M = 4.23) and the influencer post (M = 4.12), while the comics scored lower in terms of evaluations (M = 3.72). Conclusions: Respondents’ preference of content suggests that individuals seek out content that boosts their esteem or content with a “human touch”. Explanations as to why the selected content formats were preferred over the other formats are offered alongside a future research outlook.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabell Koinig, 2022. "Picturing Mental Health on Instagram: Insights from a Quantitative Study Using Different Content Formats," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1608-:d:738969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1608/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1608/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ed Diener & Derrick Wirtz & William Tov & Chu Kim-Prieto & Dong-won Choi & Shigehiro Oishi & Robert Biswas-Diener, 2010. "New Well-being Measures: Short Scales to Assess Flourishing and Positive and Negative Feelings," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 143-156, June.
    2. Feng Li & Xinwen Bai & Yong Wang, 2013. "The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE): Psychometric Properties and Normative Data in a Large Chinese Sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-9, April.
    3. Hui‐Jung Chang, 2009. "Online supportive interactions: Using a network approach to examine communication patterns within a psychosis social support group in Taiwan," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(7), pages 1504-1517, July.
    4. Sven Stollfuß, 2020. "Communitainment on Instagram: Fitness Content and Community-Driven Communication as Social Media Entertainment," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Engel, Elena & Gell, Sascha & Heiss, Raffael & Karsay, Kathrin, 2024. "Social media influencers and adolescents’ health: A scoping review of the research field," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hezhi Chen & Zhijia Zeng, 2023. "Seeking Pleasure is Good, but Avoiding Pain is Bad: Distinguishing Hedonic Approach from Hedonic Avoidance Orientations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 2377-2393, October.
    2. Marta Martín-Carbonell & Irene Checa & Martha Fernández-Daza & Yadid Paternina & Begoña Espejo, 2021. "Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) in the General Colombian Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Wenjie Li & Linting Zhang & Chengcheng Li & Ningzhe Zhu & Jingjing Zhao & Feng Kong, 2022. "Pursuing Pleasure or Meaning: A Cross-Lagged Analysis of Happiness Motives and Well-being in Adolescents," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 3981-3999, December.
    4. Lars Bauger & Rob Bongaardt & Jack J. Bauer, 2021. "Maturity and Well-Being: The Development of Self-Authorship, Eudaimonic Motives, Age, and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1313-1340, March.
    5. Berezan, Orie & Krishen, Anjala S. & Agarwal, Shaurya & Kachroo, Pushkin, 2018. "The pursuit of virtual happiness: Exploring the social media experience across generations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 455-461.
    6. Lucía I. Llinares-Insa & Ana M. Casino-García & Josefa García-Pérez, 2020. "Subjective Well-Being, Emotional Intelligence, and Mood of Parents: A Model of Relationships. Impact of Giftedness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Vicente Prado-Gascó & Virginia Romero-Reignier & Patricia Mesa-Gresa & Ana Belén Górriz, 2020. "Subjective Well-Being in Spanish Adolescents: Psychometric Properties of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Hezhi Chen & Zhijia Zeng, 2021. "When Do Hedonic and Eudaimonic Orientations Lead to Happiness? Moderating Effects of Orientation Priority," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-12, September.
    9. Shinichiro Matsuguma & Motoko Kawashima & Kazuno Negishi & Fumiya Sano & Masaru Mimura & Kazuo Tsubota, 2018. "Strengths use as a secret of happiness: Another dimension of visually impaired individuals' psychological state," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-11, February.
    10. Begoña Espejo & Irene Checa & Jaime Perales-Puchalt & Juan Francisco Lisón, 2020. "Validation and Measurement Invariance of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) in a Spanish General Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-15, November.
    11. Andrew Howell & Karen Buro, 2015. "Measuring and Predicting Student Well-Being: Further Evidence in Support of the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 903-915, April.
    12. Tobias Rahm & Elke Heise & Mirijam Schuldt, 2017. "Measuring the frequency of emotions—validation of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) in Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, February.
    13. Melikşah Demir & Andrew Haynes & Marlyn Sanchez & Jennifer C. Parada, 2019. "Personal Sense of Uniqueness Mediates the Relationship Between Compassion for Others and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(6), pages 1751-1773, August.
    14. Peng Cui & Yanhui Mao & Yufan Shen & Jianhong Ma, 2021. "Moral Identity and Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Identity Commitment Quality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-14, September.
    15. M. Pilar Matud & Mª José Pino & Juan Manuel Bethencourt & D. Estefanía Lorenzo, 2023. "Stressful Events, Psychological Distress and Well-Being during the Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain: A Gender Analysis," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 1291-1319, June.
    16. Maw–Der Foo & Marilyn A. Uy & Charles Murnieks, 2015. "Beyond Affective Valence: Untangling Valence and Activation Influences on Opportunity Identification," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 407-431, March.
    17. Yi-Ching Hsieh & Hung-Chang Chiu & Yun-Chia Tang & Wei-Yun Lin, 2018. "Does Raising Value Co-creation Increase All Customers’ Happiness?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(4), pages 1053-1067, November.
    18. Li, Tingting Elle & Chan, Eric Tak Hin, 2017. "Diaspora tourism and well-being: A eudaimonic view," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 205-206.
    19. M. Sirgy, 2011. "Theoretical Perspectives Guiding QOL Indicator Projects," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 1-22, August.
    20. Merrick Powell & Kirk N. Olsen & William Forde Thompson, 2023. "Music, Pleasure, and Meaning: The Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motivations for Music (HEMM) Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-19, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1608-:d:738969. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.