Appearance-enhancing beauty filters create personalized idealized images that may be associated with adolescents’ appearance comparison and body image. This study investigates the cross-sectional relationships between beauty-filter use, social-media appearance comparison, and body appreciation. A dataset representing 432 analytically valid adolescent cases aged 13–18 years was analyzed. Beauty Filter Use, Appearance Comparison, and Body Appreciation were scored on 1–5 scales. In the data, beauty-filter use was positively correlated with appearance comparison (r = 0.51) and negatively correlated with body appreciation (r = -0.50); appearance comparison was negatively correlated with body appreciation (r = -0.64). In an adjusted regression, both beauty-filter use (B = -0.23, p < .001) and appearance comparison (B = -0.53, p < .001) were associated with lower body appreciation. A secondary bootstrap model yielded an indirect association of -0.26, 95% CI [-0.33, -0.21].
Keywords: adolescents; beauty filters; appearance comparison; body appreciation; social media