Higher Self Evaluation of Physical Attractiveness in College Students Decreases Anticipated Usefulness of Smartphone Fitness Apps

More and more college students are beginning to use fitness/health apps on their smartphones everyday.  The apps can be used to track physical activity or food intake, which helps students to reach their health goals.

Source: www.thebrookeeper.com

In a study on the effects of body image on perceived usefulness of fitness apps, it was found that college students with an average age of 23 were more likely to believe fitness apps to be useful if they themselves had lower self-esteem.  This low self-esteem could be attributed to their physical appearance and/or their perception of their physical ability.

This may seem counter-intuitive at first given that it seems fitness apps' most frequent users would be people who tend to workout on a regular basis, and are therefore fairly fit.  However, the study found that when a student is lacking confidence in their appearance or physical ability, she will more than likely believe the app has more potential to help her than if she were already confident in her abilities.  In that case, the app cannot do much more for the student—she is already happy with where she is.

In this study by Jaehee Cho and Erin Lee, who both have PhDs from South Korean universities, 294 students were given an online survey that evaluated their self image and whether or not they thought that several different fitness apps would be of any use to them on a 5-point scale.  It was also noted that in South Korea, where the study took place, 73% of Korean adults owned a smartphone at the time of the study.

Source: www.mobihealthnews.com

Samantha Kelly claims in her article on Mashable that fitness/health apps are being newly downloaded 87% faster than any other type of smartphone app.  She also notes that more women tend to use health apps than men.

Another study performed by the University of Agder strove to discover what effect physical activity has on the physical self-perception of 15-year-olds.  A total of 1839 students from 12 different schools in Norway participated in the study.  A slight flaw in the study was that some of the males' physical appearances and abilities actually improved along the course of the study, which caused an obvious increase in self-perception.  There was no apparent difference in the females, however.

The purpose of the study was to find a way to improve the self esteem of adolescents.  Young teenagers are typically at a peak of self-consciousness since they are going through so many changes emotionally, physically, and socially.  It is crucial to find ways to help them through this stage of their life, and if the answer is physical activity, then that may be part of the cause of the recent spike in installations of fitness apps, considering teenagers tend to find any excuse to put their smartphone to good use.

Physical self-esteem incorporates both perceived physical appearance and perceived athletic ability.  Not only are these perceptions important for adolescents' overall self-esteem, but they are crucial for their psychological well-being as well.  Tommy Haugen, Yngvar Ommundsen, and Stephen Seiler claim in this study that "[e]xercise and training are proposed to reduce appearance dissatisfaction and enhance physical self-perception."

A separate study "found that cardiovascular endurance was positively correlated to athletic competence but not to physical appearance in a small sample of early adolescent girls."  It is also generally assumed that strength and aerobic training are the two most important types of exercises to promote better self-esteem and self-image.

Source: www.greatist.com

In the experiment, the participants were profiled before the workouts to determine their perceptions of their preexisting physical abilities, as well as their perceptions of their appearances in general and whether they were satisfied with each.  They were to grade themselves on a 4-point scale of the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement.  

Each participant of the study had to perform five physical fitness tests to get a preliminary indication of the physical ability of each participant.  As predicted, BMI was the most effective at determining the perceived physical appearance levels of both males and females.  If a student's BMI were high, then the student would typically report having a low perceived physical appearance, and vice-versa.  The results also suggested that "physical activity can develop physical competencies and skills, which in turn are associated with increase in self-esteem and confidence."  

Fitness and health apps are meant to encourage adolescents and adults of all ages to be more physically active and to eat in a more healthy manner.  Since exercising more often and eating better correlate with a healthier over-all mindset and improved self-image, then maybe fitness and health apps are the answer to many issues we have with adolescents in the modern day.  Low self-esteem and depression can be diminished simply by downloading a smartphone app and putting it to use.