Fitness-related Instagram use and physical activity participation: A cross-sectional examination of the roles of physical activity information seeking and exercise self-schema among emerging adults

Social media is a source of health information for young people, including topics related to physical activity (PA). In the present study, we investigated whether fitness-related Instagram (IG) use was associated with PA participation. We also explored whether exercise self-schema (i.e. viewing oneself as an exerciser and considering it important to one’s self-image) and PA information seeking moderated this relationship. Higher fitness-related IG use was associated with more PA (moderate-to-vigorous PA: β = 0.31; total PA: β = 0.20). PA information seeking was associated with moderate-to-vigorous PA (β = 0.15), but did not moderate the relationship between fitness-related IG use and PA. For people with an exercise self-schema, fitness-related IG use was not associated with PA. For people without an exercise self-schema, PA participation was positively associated with fitness-related IG use ( β  = 0.20). We discuss findings including how social media may be used to encourage PA participation among people without an exercise self-schema.