Morgan Rios / Psychology / Faculty Mentor: Angela Liegey-Dougall
Since the COVID-19 lockdowns, social media usage has surged, contributing to increased screen time and sedentary behavior amid the ongoing obesity crisis. With conflicting research on its impact, this study examined health/fitness content’s influence on physical activity. Method: Data were collected from 811 college students who completed an online survey for course credit. Various self-report questionnaires were deployed to measure participants’ health/fitness content usage on social media, relevant psychosocial variables, and physical activity outcomes. Results: More health/fitness content predicted better physical health, higher attitude towards physical activity, greater social norms, and lower social physique anxiety. Health/fitness content also predicted greater total physical activity and public environment preference, but lower private environment preference. Attitude towards physical activity and physical health predicted additional variance in total physical activity and public environment preference. None of the psychosocial variables predicted private environment preference. Discussion: As expected, health/fitness content predicted physical activity outcomes that were not explained by the psychosocial variables. Future research should further examine how health/fitness exposure plays a role in encouraging individuals to be more active in social settings using longitudinal data to examine changes in physical activity behavior and exercise environment preferences over time.
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