Filtering the I From the Ideal: Examining Preadolescents’ Online Self-Presentation in Relation to Their Perceived Attractiveness

Abstract

Social media use among preadolescents continues to increase each year. The current cross-sectional study examined how preadolescents’ different (i.e., authentic and inauthentic) online presentation strategies, as well as the social feedback these representations receive, are associated with their perceived attractiveness. The results of our study (n = 638; 52.4% girls, 9–13 years, Mage = 10.94, SDage = 0.85) showed that more truthful online self-presentation practices coincided with feeling more positive about one’s appearance. A significant moderation effect was found for social feedback, with the association becoming stronger as levels of online feedback (e.g., online popularity, likes, comments, and tags by other users) increased. Contrary to our expectations, inauthentic self-presentation was negatively related to preadolescents’ perceived attractiveness, while no significant interaction effect with online feedback was found.