Daredevils on social media: A comprehensive approach toward risky selfie behavior among adolescents

Risky selfies are recent, but worrying phenomena in which adolescents take pictures of themselves during the act of risk behavior. By applying the principles of the prototype willingness model, the current cross-sectional study among adolescents ( N = 686) aged 15–18 years old examined the relation between social media use and adolescents’ risky selfie behavior. A structural equation modeling indicated that adolescents’ general social media use was positively related to descriptive norm estimations of risky selfie takers and favorable prototype perceptions of risky selfie takers. Moreover, attitudes toward the taking of risky selfies and prototype perceptions of risky selfie takers were found to positively relate to adolescents’ willingness to engage in risky selfie taking and their actual risky selfie behavior. Furthermore, no support was found for the moderating roles of gender, developmental status, narcissism, and sensation seeking in the reported relations with social media use.