Fitspiration—Inspiration or threat for adolescent girls? A qualitative investigation on fitness‐related social media content and physical education

Several quantitative studies have shown a negative relationship between fitspiration content (appearance‐idealized pictures related to a fit and healthy lifestyle) in social media and mental health. The current study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of fitspiration users by qualitatively assessi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Children & society 2024-11, Vol.38 (6), p.2089-2106
Main Authors: Frühauf, Anika, Roth, Merle, Rausch, Linda, Kopp, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent girls
Behavior
body image
exercise
female
Food consumption
Girls
Health behavior
health behaviour
Health status
Healthy food
Mass media effects
Mass media images
Mental health
Motivation
nutrition
Pedagogy
Physical activity
Physical education
Physical fitness
Public schools
Quantitative analysis
school
Social media
Social networks
Students
Teaching
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Summary:Several quantitative studies have shown a negative relationship between fitspiration content (appearance‐idealized pictures related to a fit and healthy lifestyle) in social media and mental health. The current study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of fitspiration users by qualitatively assessing their perception of fitspiration content and how it affects their health‐related behaviour and well‐being. A further research question was whether fitspiration as a form of public pedagogy was addressed in participants' physical education (PE) in schools. Thirteen female students from Austria who follow fitspiration content (14–19 years) were interviewed using semi‐structured interviews. Positive effects in health behaviour, such as a higher reported physical activity, exercise motivation and conscious eating (e.g., reducing junk food) were reported. However, participants further described potentially negative consequences on mental and physical health resulting from social comparisons with influencers. As none of the students reported addressing social media fitness content in PE, including or adapting a critical media pedagogy in PE should be considered to enhance awareness of the negative effects of social media but use the positive influence on health behaviour.
ISSN:0951-0605
1099-0860
DOI:10.1111/chso.12879