A multi-method exploration into the social networks of young teenagers and their physical activity behavior

The Effect of Social Networks on Active Living in Adolescents: Qualitative Focus Group Study

BACKGROUND

Participation in organized sports and other forms of active living have important health benefits in adolescence and adulthood. Unfortunately, the transition to secondary school has been shown to be a barrier to participation. Social networks can play important roles in activating adolescents, and information and communication technology (ICT) interventions can augment this role. To date, there are few insights into what adolescents themselves think and feel about barriers to and motivators for active living, the role of their social networks in active living, and the potential of ICT for physical activity (PA).

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to gather insights into the perspectives of adolescents aged 12 to 14 years on active living and sports participation, motivators and demotivators for active living, and the potential roles of their social network and of ICT.

METHODS

A total of 26 adolescents aged 12 to 14 years from different levels of Dutch secondary schools participated in 1 of 5 semistructured focus group interviews, in which they talked about sports and PA, their social networks, their ICT use, and the role of social networks and ICT in PA. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a thematic qualitative approach.

RESULTS

The study showed that all participants were physically active, although the transition to secondary school made this difficult, mostly because of time constraints. Participants saw positive physical and mental health effects as important benefits of active living. They regarded social benefits as strong motivators for active living: being together, making friends, and having fun together. However, the social network could also demotivate through negative peer judgment and negative feedback. Participants were willing to share their own positive experiences and hear about those from close peers and friends but would not share their own (and were not interested in others') negative experiences or personal information. Participants were mainly interested in descriptive norms set by others and obtained inspiration from others for PA. With respect to using ICT for active living, participants stated a preference for social challenges among friends, personalized feedback, goals, activities, and rewards. Competition was seen as less important or even unattractive. If mentioned, participants felt that this should be with friends, or peers of a similar level, with fun being more important than the competition itself.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that adolescents feel that their social network is and can be a strong driver of active living. They are willing to use ICT-based solutions that make use of social networks for PA as long as these solutions involve their current (close) network and use an approach based on being together and having fun together.

Interactive communication in the process of physical education: are social media contributing to the improvement of physical training performance

The development of modern technologies and the use of social networks create an environment for the exchange of information, interactive communication, learning, and optimization of various processes. The study describes the results of the effectiveness of using various social media tools to increase the level of physical activity in people of different ages (12-35 years old). Effective tools for increasing the level of physical activity that can be used on social media have been considered. A survey created in Google forms was conducted to select research participants and group them; the pedagogical experiment is the introduction of social media tools to encourage users to do sports. The experiment involved 148 people of different age groups: adolescents, students, adults. After the experiment with the experimental group, there were 59.20% of participants with an average level of physical activity and 22.37% of participants with a high level of physical activity; in the control group, 31.58% of participants had a low level of physical activity, 48.70%-average, 10.53%-high. Most participants of all ages (88.16%) refrained from posting videos of their achievements on social media, while nine participants (5 pupils and 4 students) posted their achievements in the form of short video exercises or screenshots, and reports of exercises in mobile applications in their groups. The research results are applicable to various social groups and can be used to create private groups on social media to encourage physical activity. The data obtained can be used for further development of specialized training programs using digital technology and social networks.