Personality traits play are related to many forms of psychological distress, such as body dissatisfaction.

To explore the associations between appearance schemas and personality traits.

494 university students (80.2% females; 99.2% single), with a mean age of 20.17 years old (SD=1.77; range:18-20), filled in the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised, the NEO-Personality Inventory, and the Composite Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale.

A significant difference was found in Self-evaluation Salience scores by sex [females (M=37.99,SD=7.82); males (M=35.36,SD=6.60);t(489)=-3.052,p=.002]. Having conducted correlations separately, by sex, Self-Evaluation Salience was correlated with Concern Over Mistakes (r=.27), Doubts about Actions (r=.35), and Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism (r=.23). For females, Self-evaluation Salience was correlated with Concern Over Mistakes (r=.34), Personal Standards (r=.25), Doubts about Actions (r=.33), Parental Expectations (r=.24), Parental Criticism (r=.24), Organization (r=.11), Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism (r=.31), Self-Oriented Perfectionism (r=.32), and Neuroticism (r=.33). Concerning Motivational Salience, in the total sample (not separately, by sex), this scale/dimension significantly correlated with Conscientiousness (r=. 18), Personal Standards (r=.23), Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism (r=. 10), and Self-Oriented Perfectionism (r=.29).

Females seem to value more their self-appearance and, in females, the salience of appearance in life seems to be associated with maladaptive-perfectionism, as well as with adaptive-perfectionism. In males, the salience of appearance was only related with adaptive perfectionism. Males seem more concerned with their own standards, while for females other´s standards are also relevant. In females the level of salience of appearance in life seems to relate to the experience of feelings, such as anxiety/depression (neuroticism). The motivation to improve appearance seemed to be particularly related, in both sex, to adaptive perfectionism.

No significant relationships.

Research on the association between internet use and concerns about body image is still scarce.

To explore the associations between generalized problematic internet use, number of social networks, and appearance schemas.

216 Portuguese late adolescents (89.3% females), with a mean age of 18.62 years old (SD = .488, range: 18-19) filled in an internet patterns of use questionnaire, the Generalized Problematic Interne Use Scale 2 (GPIUS2) and The Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R).

A total of 99.6% of the students use social networks. Subjects were divided into three groups (group1: 1-2 social networks; group 2: 3 social networks, and group 3: >3 social networks). There was a statistically difference in Motivational Salience scores (ASI-R) for the three groups [F (2, 503) = 6.0, p = .003]. Post-hoc comparisons indicated that the mean score for group 3 (M = 28.29, SD = 4.95) was significantly different from group 1 (M = 26.69, SD =4.55), and from group 2, (M = 26.87, SD =4.95). Generalized problematic internet subscales (Mood Regulation, Self-Deficient Regulation, and Negative Consequences) and total score were significantly correlated with both dimensions of ASI-R: Self-Evaluation Salience (coefficients varied from r = .31** to r = .47**) and Motivational Salience (from r = .14*, to r = .31**).

Generalized problematic internet use and the number of social networks are associated with adolescent’s cognitive-behavioural investment in one’s own appearance. Study carried out under the strategic project of the Centre for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies (CEFH) UID/FIL/00683/2019, funded by the FCT.