Role of Social Networks in Shaping Health Behavior of Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

Aim: The access to social media websites has developed people's social media awareness. Often the misuse of social media adversely affects human behaviour and human health. The prime objective of this study was to provide practical guidelines to the Chinese government for improving the appropriate use of social media with recommended findings to improve the health behaviour of adolescents. Methods: This research used a sample of 382 individuals collected with a survey-based questionnaire using a simple random sampling approach. The data collected for this research was analysed using the R Package programming software RStudio. Resutls: The findings of this research highlighted the factors that significantly impact adolescents' health behaviour, such as frequency of social media use, peer influence, parental involvement, access to health information, and cultural influence. Conclusion: This study contributes to the body of knowledge with the critical findings based on the empirical evidence. These findings also address the inconsistencyfound in the previous literature. The Chinese government is required to work on this study's findings to improve the role of social media in adolescents' health behaviour.