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Office of Undergraduate Research Home » 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium Schedules

Found 1 project

Poster Presentation 1

11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
The Efficacy of Weight Management Information Dissemination for Black Adolescent Girls: Comparing Messaging from Social Media and Public Health Websites
Presenter
  • Grace Avalo (Grace) Rothmeyer, Sophomore, Informatics UW Honors Program
Mentor
  • LaShawnDa Pittman, American Ethnic Studies
Session
    Poster Session 1
  • Commons East
  • Easel #33
  • 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

  • Other American Ethnic Studies mentored projects (2)
  • Other students mentored by LaShawnDa Pittman (1)
The Efficacy of Weight Management Information Dissemination for Black Adolescent Girls: Comparing Messaging from Social Media and Public Health Websitesclose

In the United States, Black adolescent (10-19 years old) girls have the highest prevalence of pediatric obesity. Despite public attention and public health interventions on obesity, current research has yet to evaluate what weight management recommendations are prevalent in mediums most frequently used by Black adolescent girls. Previous scholars show that Black adolescents primarily consume content on Instagram and Tiktok compared to all other social media platforms. Our research seeks to compare the weight management recommendations present in Instagram and Tiktok with those of public health organization websites. Using the rhetorical themes identified, we move to assess the feasibility of health messaging from public policy organizations compared to social media platforms. Ultimately, we seek to evaluate the efficacy of the recommendations based on the availability of the infrastructure accessible to Black adolescents. We analyze weight management messaging on Instagram, Tik Tok, and public policy organization websites. These primary sources are excerpted through simple random sampling and coded for common weight management themes. We seek to determine the feasibility of such messaging as well as points of convergence and divergence between the platforms. We hypothesize that the weight management themes found in social media will not demonstrate consistency with the recommendations made by public health organizations. In addition, we predict that neither the social media nor public policy weight management recommendations will be attainable for Black adolescent girls when assessing their feasibility in relation to the environmental and socioeconomic resources available to them in the United States. In conclusion, there are insufficient resources for Black adolescent girls to make informed weight management decisions and available resources are not effectively communicated.


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