Bell, Beth T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6587-0336, Deighton-Smith, N.L and Hurst, M. (2019) “When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain”: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration. Journal of Health Psychology.

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Abstract

Adolescents access information about fitness, including content labelled as #fitspiration, through social media. Seventy-seven adolescents (M age = 12.49; SD = 0.55; Girls = 27) participated in semi-structured focus groups to explore their perspectives on #fitspiration and fitness more broadly. Through inductive thematic analysis, four themes were developed: (1) Fitness enhances physical function and appearance, but these are not always linked, (2) Fitness is transformative but requires hard work, (3) Fitness should be an intrinsically motivated personal choice, (4) Pain in the pursuit of fitness. Findings highlight young adolescents’ complex understandings of fitness negotiated through their critical interpretation of #fitspiration.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.1177/1359105319869798
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF636 Applied psychology B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF712-724.85 Developmental psychology
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/3982

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