# Understanding adolescent girls’ thoughts and opinions on having social media influencers deliver body image and mental health support: A mixed-methods study

## TL;DR

This study explores how adolescent girls in the UK view social media influencers delivering body image and mental health support, finding that trust and authenticity are key.

## Contribution

The study introduces a mixed-methods approach to evaluate adolescent girls' perspectives on influencer-led mental health interventions.

## Key findings

- Adolescent girls value influencer qualities like authenticity and relatability over physical traits like ethnicity or body size.
- Most participants believed influencer-delivered interventions could be helpful if the influencer shared personal mental health experiences.
- Over 60% of participants agreed influencer-delivered body image interventions were a good idea despite preferring offline support.

## Abstract

Influencers have been used to deliver messaging in public health campaigns and have begun collaborating with researchers to deliver evidence-based content. Building on this approach, this study explored adolescent girls’ perspectives on influencers and utilising influencers to deliver body image and mental health interventions.

A mixed-methods study was conducted with 375 UK-based girls (Mage  =  15.39, SD = 1.63) to understand their experiences with influencers and their opinions about influencer-delivered body image and mental health interventions. Data were analysed quantitatively via descriptive statistics and qualitatively using inductive content analysis.

Most participants expressed likeability, credibility, authenticity, and relatability were key influencer qualities when choosing to trust an influencer, whilst their ethnicity, gender, and body size were not important. In considering intervention development, the most salient factor in trusting an influencer about body image was that the influencer shared their own experiences. Participants preferred offline body image support (47%) versus online (38%); however, just over 60% agreed that influencer-delivered body image interventions were a good idea. The content analysis generated three main categories: ‘Influencer-delivered interventions would be helpful’ (53.5%), encompassing the offer of support and online environment as ideal; ‘influencer-delivered interventions would be unhelpful’ (28.1%), including influencers are not qualified and the toxicity of the internet; and ‘influencer qualities’ (18.3%), such as relatability.

Overall, adolescent girls thought an influencer-driven approach could be helpful in improving their body image and mental health. Caveats included that the influencer must be trustworthy, relatable, and authentic, which could encompass self-disclosure related to their mental health.