Protective filtering: A qualitative study on the cognitive strategies young women use to promote positive body image in the face of beauty-ideal imagery on Instagram.

Research supports the hypothesis that people with a positive body image engage in a cognitive process of protective filtering, whereby positive information is "filtered in" and negative information is "filtered out" to promote and maintain positive body image (Wood-Barcalow et al., 2010). To provide more insight into this process, this study qualitatively explored the experiences of young women self-identifying as having a positive body image (N = 20, Mage = 21.00) when they were exposed to beauty-ideal imagery. Participants wrote down their thoughts during beauty-ideal exposure on Instagram, and were interviewed. Via reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four themes concerning the protective filtering strategies the participants described using: (a) critiquing the beauty ideal/imagery; (b) appreciating their own/other's bodies; (c) focusing on the values and personality of the women in beauty-ideal imagery; (d) linking beauty-ideal imagery with its past negative consequences. Participants described factors contributing to the effectiveness of their protective filtering, and advice for others to foster positive body image. Overall, many of the protective filtering strategies overlapped with key characteristics of positive body image. Future research may examine whether deliberately "activating" these characteristics in the face of body image-threats could protect and promote positive body image among other women as well.

The effects of yoga on functionality appreciation and additional facets of positive body image.

This study investigated the effects of yoga on functionality appreciation, and the potential mechanisms that could explain the impact of yoga on additional facets of positive body image. Young adult women (N = 114; Mage = 22.19) were randomised to a 10-week Hatha yoga programme or waitlist control group. Participants completed measures of functionality appreciation, body appreciation, body compassion, appearance evaluation, self-objectification, and embodiment at Pretest, Midtest, Posttest, and 1-month Follow-Up. Follow-up data could not be analysed due to high levels of attrition. The remaining data showed that, compared to the control group, women in the yoga programme experienced lower self-objectification at Midtest and greater embodiment over time. Further, all participants experienced improvements in body appreciation, body compassion, and appearance evaluation over time, regardless of their assigned group. Lower self-objectification contributed to improvements in body appreciation and body compassion. In addition, greater embodiment contributed to improvements in body appreciation, body compassion, and appearance evaluation. Contrary to our expectations, yoga did not lead to increased functionality appreciation, nor was functionality appreciation a mediator of the impact of yoga on positive body image. Instead, lower self-objectification, and greater embodiment, drove improvements in positive body image.