Examining social media addiction, obesity prevalence, and levels of physical activity in middle school students

The purpose of this research is to examine Social Media Addiction, Obesity Prevalence, and Levels of Physical Activity in Middle School Students. The study was conducted in a survey model, and the sample of the research consists of a total of 400 volunteer students, including randomly selected girls and boys attending Gökçebey Middle School. Necessary permissions were obtained for the research, and parent consent forms were filled out. As data collection tools in the research, in addition to the personal information form, the "Physical Activity Scale for Children (PASC)" developed by Crocker, Bailey, Faulkner, Kowalski, and McGrath (1997) was used to determine physical activity levels. The "Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS)" for Adolescents developed by Özgenel, Canpolat, and Ekşi (2019) was used to determine social media addiction, and Obesity prevalence was determined using the Assessment Standards designed by Cole, Marry, Katherine, and William (2000). The research was conducted with the approval of the Bartın University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee under the decision number 203-SBB-0761 dated 11.12.2023. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 software package. Skewness and kurtosis values were checked to determine whether the data were normally distributed. These values were checked and evaluated within the range of +2 and -2 (George and Mallery, 2010). Based on this evaluation, data showing normal distribution were analyzed using independent samples t-test, One Way Anova, and Correlation tests. The significance level was set at 0.05. According to the findings, statistically significant differences were found in the mean scores of the Social Media Addiction Scale for adolescents according to the gender variable (p<0.05). Statistically significant differences were also found in the mean scores of the Social Media Addiction Scale and the Physical Activity Scale for Children according to the gender variable (p<0.05). Statistically significant differences were found in the BMI and Social Media Addiction and Physical Activity Total Scores according to the Mother's Education Level variable (p<0.05). In conclusion, it is necessary for parents to control the social media addiction of individuals at the middle school level. Considering that parents with higher education levels tend to be more controlled, organizing seminars and providing education to parents about social media addiction would be beneficial. On the other hand, it is crucial to control social media usage in terms of obesity prevalence.