College of Public Health and Human Sciences

Girls are less physically active than boys, and they are less physically active on weekends compared to weekdays (Generelo, Zaragoza, Julián, Abarca-Sos, & Murillo, 2011). This is a global crisis, with 84% of adolescent girls worldwide failing to obtain 300 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity on a weekly basis (World Health Organization, 2018). Many factors contribute to this, including spending more time watching screens. Smartphone use, in particular, has increased exponentially since its advent (Silver, 2019). There are more than five billion smartphone users worldwide, and young people are significant users (Silver, 2019).

Seah and Koh (2020) capitalized on this interest by examining the efficacy of the MapMyFitness mobile application to change adolescent girls’ physical activity behavior during weekends. Specifically, their study sought to answer the question: Does the MapMyFitness smartphone application improve girls’ physical activity behavior during weekends?