Social comparison on Instagram among millennial mothers: The relationships between envy and parental stress

Mothers are heavily engaged in social media, and mommy influencers have become key sources of information and targets for social comparison. This study investigates the psychological mechanisms by which mothers’ parental stress is affected by social comparison with mommy influencers. An online survey was conducted among South Korean millennial mothers (N = 237). The results revealed that mothers who frequently compare themselves to mommy influencers may experience both positive and negative effects depending on the envy type. While social comparison was positively associated with both benign and malicious envy, the relationships between these two forms of envy and parenting efficacy differed. Benign envy was positively and malicious envy was negatively associated with enhanced parenting efficacy, respectively. Both envy and parenting efficacy serially mediated the relationship between mothers’ social comparison experiences with mommy influencers and parental stress. The implications of these findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.