Social Media Addiction and Cognitive Behavioral Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls: A Cross-Sectional Study

To measure a multivariate analysis of social media addiction and cognitive-behavioral physical activity associated with several sociodemographic characteristics in adolescent girls.

A cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of adolescent girls studying in a vocational high-school in the Middle-Black-Sea region in Türkiye (n = 333). A questionnaire, Social Media Addiction Scale-for-Adolescents (SMAS-A), and Cognitive-Behavioral Physical Activity Questionnaire (CBPAQ) were used to collect the data.

The mean age was 15.35 (SD = 1.15), and 29.4% were the ninth-class students. Of the adolescent girls, 85.9% were social-media users, 59.8% used the internet 2-hours-or-more/daily, 67.9% declared themselves as moderately-active. The mean scores of the SMAS-A and the CBPAQ were 3.40 (SD = 1.61) and 21.03 (SD = 7.64), respectively. There was a significantly-negative correlation between cognitive-behavioral physical activity and social-media addiction levels. The One-Way MANOVA results showed significant differences in the academic level, family income, mother education, and physical activity measurement application usage affected to cognitive-behavioral physical activity. Social media usage habit affected to the social media addiction level.

Daily internet usage time and self-declared physical activity level were the mutually affected factors. School nurses should act to improve healthy social media usage habits to promote well-being and encourage the positive attitudes towards regular physical activity in this population.