‘<i>When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain</i>’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

Bell, Beth T.; Deighton-Smith, Nova; Hurst, Megan

doi:10.1177/1359105319869798

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Thin ideals (characterized by a lean physique with low body fat and a narrow waist), fit/athletic ideals (characterized by a lean and muscular physique), and curvy ideals (characterized by a thin waist and large bosom/bottom) are generally more relevant for women/girls (Betz and Ramsey, 2017). Adolescents have been found to endorse and strive for these ideals, despite acknowledging the unrealistic nature of these bodies (Edcoms and Credos, 2016;Burnette et al, 2017;Bell et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies suggest that girls' body image perceptions are more strongly and negatively impacted by social media because they engage with and invest more in body-related content than boys (Frisén and Holmqvist, 2010;McAndrew and Jeong, 2012;Chua and Chang, 2016). Boys have also been found to perceive social media as a more positive, motivating influence on their body image vs. girls who tend to report that social media exerts more negative effects on their body image (Bell et al, 2019). Boys are also thought to be protected somewhat from exposure to aesthetic body ideals, because they value body functionality over aesthetics (Grogan and Richards, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping

Mahon

Hevey

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Although scholars continue to debate the influence of social media on body image, increased social media use, especially engaging in appearance-related behaviors may be a potential risk factor for body dissatisfaction in adolescents. Little research has investigated how adolescents process appearance-related content and the potential strategies they use to protect body image perceptions on social media. To investigate coping strategies used by adolescents, four qualitative focus groups were conducted with 29 adolescents (23 girls) aged 15–16 years (M = 15.31, SD = 0.47) in mixed-gender Irish secondary schools. Thematic analysis revealed that adolescents employed many different behavioral strategies such as avoiding negative content and selecting positive content. Cognitive processing strategies such as critically evaluating body-related content, psychologically distancing from and positively reframing challenging content were also used, although less frequently. Boys appeared to exhibit greater positive agency over their bodies and social media use and tended to use more active coping styles than girls. Efforts to promote body image on social media such as body positive pages and exposing artificial social media content were considered limited in their effectiveness.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping

Mahon

Hevey

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…Among young adult social media users, most fitspiration consumers look to it for motivation and information on improving their health, inspiration to change their body shape, size, or tone, and motivation to improve their eating habits (Mayoh & Jones, 2021). Most fitspiration consumers also recognize, however, that the ideal bodies presented in posts were likely unattainable and could contribute to feelings of inadequacy among consumers (Bell et al, 2021). These users indicated that posts focusing on achievement of performance goals would likely be more inspirational than those focusing on body shape or size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fitspiration content is largely focused on achieving an ideal body size and shape through physical activity engagement. According to the qualitative work of Bell et al (2021), adolescents may be more inspired to participate in physical activity when fitspiration models had more diverse body types or the posts depicted the fitness journey of the subject of the post. These participants also suggested that to be more effective in inspiring exercise behavior, fitspiration posts should highlight performance outcomes rather than body ideals.…”

Section: Association Of Fitspiration With Physical Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Content of social media fitspiration and its effect on physical activity-related behavior: A systematic review.

Nuss,

Coulter,

Liu

2024

Psychology of Popular Media

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The "fitspiration" movement on social media has become increasingly popular in the past decade and may be a useful tool to encourage physical activity. The themes of posts as well as the impact on physical activity-related behavior are both unclear. The purposes of this review were to: (a) systematically review the themes of fitspiration content and (b) explore the influence of fitspiration content on physical activity-related behaviors. This systematic review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Search terms were: "fitspiration" or "fitness posts" or "exercise posts" and "content" and "fitspiration" or "fitness posts" or "exercise posts" and "physical activity" or "exercise." A date range of January 2011-November 2021 was applied. Post characteristics were sorted by frequency to identify common themes. Studies were compiled into a matrix table to determine the effect of fitspiration on physical activity. Of the 51 studies identified, 18 were included based on inclusion criteria. Most fitspiration content featured images of women (82.6%), thin bodies (66.5%), people posing (32.9%), and objectified the subject in some way. According to social cognitive theory, fitspiration may affect physical activity behavior through modeling; however, the included studies show little evidence that fitspiration influences physical activity. Fitspiration may be limited in its impact because of the perceived unattainability of the idealized body types featured in the posts. Future research should investigate the effect of more diverse body types, like those of the body positive movement, on physical activity behavior. Public Policy Relevance StatementFitspiration is an overwhelmingly popular form of social media that users often look to for motivation for physical activity. It appears, however, that fitspiration posts feature women more often than men, thin and visibly muscular bodies, people posing rather than exercising, and objectify the subject to a degree. It also has no discernable effect on physical activity by those who view it.

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“…2). Thus, whilst the initial coding remained data-driven, focusing on the content within the transcript, the analysis adopted a more theoretically-driven approach, exploring the level to which codes fit with the theory, similar to others within a health context [26]. Semantic themes were focused upon during the analysis in an aim to identify surface-level views [27] and opinions regarding the usability and acceptability of a click-dummy version of COPD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the Technology Acceptance Model to conceptualise experiences of the usability and acceptability of a self-management app (COPD.Pal®) for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

et al. 2020

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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a long-term progressive inflammatory lung disease causing chronic breathlessness and many hospital admissions. It affects up to 1.2 million people in the UK. To help people with COPD self-manage their condition we developed, in partnership with healthcare users, a digital mobile phone app called COPD.Pal®. We report the first user feedback of COPD.Pal®, applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) theoretical framework.11 participants engaged with a click dummy version of COPD.Pal® before being asked questions relating to their experiences. A deductive, semantic, reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to analyse their individual and collective experiences. The study was registered at Clinical Trials.gov (NCT04142957).Two overarching themes resulted: Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness. Within the former, participants discussed how they wanted flexibility and choice in how they engaged with the app; including how often they used it. Additionally, they discussed how the app layout should make it straightforward to use, whilst unanimously agreeing that COPD.Pal® provided this. Within Perceived Usefulness, participants discussed how they wanted the information they entered into the app to be useful, in addition to the app providing resources regarding COPD. Lastly, there was disagreement regarding preferences for further app development.We found that COPD.Pal® was usable and acceptable by people with COPD and TAM provided a useful theoretical framework for both structuring discussions with users and analysing their comments.

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‘When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

Cited by 10 publications

References 52 publications

Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping

Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping

Content of social media fitspiration and its effect on physical activity-related behavior: A systematic review.

Using the Technology Acceptance Model to conceptualise experiences of the usability and acceptability of a self-management app (COPD.Pal®) for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

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