This study aimed to investigate the wellbeing benefits and limitations of women’s running Facebook groups. The results clearly showed that participants perceive Facebook running groups to benefit areas of their wellbeing, with negligible indication of perceived wellbeing limitations. Participants perceived the groups to benefit their sense of optimism, interest in others, interest in new things, and a sense of feeling good about themselves. The responses indicated the groups are not perceived to influence feelings of relaxation, energy levels, sense of feeling useful, ability to deal with problems, the participants’ ability to make their minds up about things, their ability to think clearly and their sense of feeling loved. The generally positive perception of the groups’ wellbeing benefits supports findings by Erfani & Abedin (5) that social media users reported benefits to feelings of belonging, social support and confidence.
Whilst the majority (85%) of participants visit women’s running Facebook groups to read posts on a daily basis, only 20% contribute to posts every day. The data would suggest that many participants still perceive wellbeing benefits from the groups, even when opting not to share their own experiences. This may be due in part to the normalising and motivating effect of reading about women’s sporting experiences, challenging the patriarchal attitudes and barriers to sport experienced by many women as found by McGannon, McMahon & Gonsalves (10). This is an important finding as social media group moderators can benefit from knowing the habits of their members. This result suggests the influence of social media posts is much wider than it appears, as many users choose to remain ‘silent’ within the groups they frequent. This finding also establishes for future studies that it is not possible to fully assess the wellbeing benefits or limitations of social media communities by merely observing the activities within the group, as much of the members’ engagement is invisible to an outsider.
Participants who had been running for the longest reported they had been members of the groups for longer and spent more time reading posts on the groups. This may be attributed to the assimilation of running into an individual’s identity over time, as found by Robinson et al. (14), which can lead to a decreased reliance on non-running peer groups and the drive to connect instead with other runners.
A significant negative relationship between participants’ age and frequency of reading and contributing to group posts suggests that young members are significantly more likely to engage more frequently with women’s running Facebook groups. This finding supports Perrin (13) who found that 18–29 year olds use social media more than other age groups. Hardy & Castonguay (7) found the use of social media offered wellbeing benefits for young adults, but posed threats to the wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults. They speculated this may be due to an increased propensity for adults over the age of 30 years to engage in social comparison, an element of online communities that can compromise sense of wellbeing.
A significant negative correlation between wellbeing score and frequency of reading and contributing to posts may be suggestive that too much time engaged with women’s running Facebook groups could pose wellbeing limitations. Alternatively, as the majority of participants did not perceive the groups to reduce their overall wellbeing, this finding is suggestive that a lower wellbeing score may result in increased engagement with the groups.
Implications for practice
This research has found that women’s running Facebook groups have the potential to benefit members’ wellbeing, even when those members are not contributing to posts. This provides a useful insight into the habits of group users. The finding suggests that group moderators should be mindful of conversations that take place within their communities, as they are likely to influence their most active contributors as well as ‘silent’ members.
This research also suggests that excessive use of women’s running Facebook groups may contribute to a reduced sense of wellbeing. With this in mind, it would be pertinent for social media users and moderators to raise community awareness regarding this and promote a balanced approach to online interaction.
Limitations
This online survey has a few limitations. These include the relatively small sample size of 349 Facebook running group women members. A larger sample size could have benefitted the study by providing more generalisations. The participants of this study were UK members and this survey could have included international members, thus providing a global perspective. Finally, a baseline reading of participant wellbeing was not available, so it is not possible to know if there was a change in overall wellbeing score since the participants joined a women’s running Facebook group.
Further research
This research could be developed further with implementation of a longitudinal design by asking participants to repeat the questionnaire at set time-points. This would aid investigation into the ways in which fluctuations in wellbeing might influence social media behaviours, including changes through the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and easing of restrictions. The research also has scope to be extended across various social media platforms for further comparison.