Social comparison, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction among postpartum women

The postpartum period is a window of vulnerability for disordered eating. Postpartum women experience pressures to “bounce back” to their pre-pregnancy weight which may lead to social comparisons, however it is unknown what postpartum women compare (e.g., body, eating), and to whom they compare themselves (e.g., celebrities, peers). This study evaluated links between different types (what is compared) and sources (to whom do they compare) of social comparison that postpartum women engage in. Included was self-oriented comparison, a novel construct conceptualized as comparisons of one’s current postpartum appearance to one’s pre-pregnancy appearance. A total of 306 postpartum women who gave birth in the past year and 153 control women who had never been pregnant completed an online survey. Results demonstrated postpartum women engaged in more frequent self-oriented comparison than controls. Postpartum women compared their bodies more frequently to their pre-pregnant selves, than to other sources. Although all types and sources of comparison were positively correlated with each disordered eating construct, eating comparison and self-oriented body comparison emerged as the dominant types and sources of comparison explaining unique variance in a range of disordered eating. Results suggest social comparison factors may be critical in understanding postpartum disordered eating risk.