THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUTRITION AND EXERCISE BEHAVIOR WITH SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IN ADOLESCENT FEMALES

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of social media addiction on nutrition/exercise behavior in adolescent females. The questionnaire study consisted 450 adolescent females as population and 295 adolescent females as sample. In this study, Short Form of the Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents and the Nutrition Exercise Behavior Scale (NEBS) were used. NEBS had four sub-dimensions (psychological/addicted eating behavior, healthy eating/exercise behavior, unhealthy eating-exercise behavior and meal pattern). The adolescent females' average age and Body Mass Index were 16.4±1.17 years and 21.3±3.46 kg/m2, respectively. As a result, 84.7% of adolescents do not exercise regularly. Social media addiction was found in 63.4% of adolescents. While there was a positive correlation between social media scale score and psychological/addicted eating behavior (r:0.430, p<0.001) and unhealthy diet-exercise behavior (r:0.353, p<0.001); A negative correlation was found between social media score and healthy eating/exercise behavior (r:-0.165, p<0.05) and eating pattern (r:-0.399, p<0.05). In this study, it was prominently revealed the effect of social media addiction on nutrition-exercise behavior. It is thought that this study will raise awareness about the prevention of the negative effects of social media on nutrition-exercise behaviors and can be a source of data for other studies.