Exploring Motives for Using Facebook: A Latent Profile Analysis

Abstract

People use Facebook from a variety of motives and literature is dominated by descriptive statistics and variableoriented approaches (e.g., regression). The aim of this paper is to extend previous research by adopting a person-oriented approach (i.e., LPA – latent profile analysis) and examine whether profiles of motivation can be identified. Two empirical studies were performed engaging Romanian university students (557 and 550, respectively). The LPA and mclust package version 5.3 were used to identify groups of students who share similar response patterns to multiple facets of motivation when using Facebook. The results of LPA revealed the presence of three profiles, reflecting different levels of motivations for using Facebook: low, moderate, and high. These profiles differed significantly from each other with respect to maintaining social relationships, extending social relationships, and information & collaboration. The results illustrate that maintaining social relations is the most important factor to create the profiles. Also, students in the high motivational profile reported more time spent on Facebook than those in the other two profiles.