Investigating Photo Investment in adolescence and young adulthood

Photo investment (PI) reflects people effort and investment in choosing photos of themselves to share on social media and their concern about such posts. Literature showed the association among PI, individual characteristics, body esteem, gender and age. The study aimed at investigating: 1) gender and age differences on PI, self-esteem, narcissism and body esteem (in terms of appearance, attribution, weight); 2) the role of self-esteem, narcissism and body esteem in explaining PI, distinguishing for gender and age. Participants were 238 adolescents (MAge=16.32) and 269 young adults (MAge=23.73), who completed an online survey. Independent samples t-tests showed several differences in the male subsample between adolescents and young adults. In the male subsample, appearance (β=-.332) and narcissism (β=.200) explained adolescent PI (F= 9.578 p<.001; R2=19%), and appearance (β=-.441) and attribution (β=.285) young adult PI (F= 20.428, p<.001; R2=22%). In the female subsample, only appearance explained PI for both adolescents (β=-.243; F= 6.418, p=.013; R2=6%) and young adults (β=-.422; F= 26.015, p<.001; R2=18%). Findings suggest that adolescents and young adults, both males and females, with a good general feeling about their appearance are less concerned about their photo posting. Furthermore, the perception of other’s evaluation about one’s body influences young adult male PI.