Adolescents’ Exercise Motives Impact on Use Adherence of Wearable Technology

Wearable technology devices have become extremely prevalent, however sustained long-term use and adoption is still an issue. Furthermore, adoption and use vary by age group. Understanding age characteristics associated with adoption and use of wearable technology devices is key. This study investigated exercise motives and their influence on sustained use of wearable technology amongst adolescents. Sixty-five high school students (juniors and seniors) took part in the study. Participants received Fitbit activity trackers as a means of exercise persuasion. At the beginning of the study, participants completed an Exercise Motivation Inventory (EMI-2; Markland & Ingledew, 1997) and baseline exercise behaviors and motives were established. Use of the Fitbit enabled the electronic collection of participants’ daily activities. A web-portal tracked and captured participants’ compliance to use and wear the Fitbit device. Via a dashboard, or downloaded file, a “last sync” date provided evidence regarding participant use and compliance. Data gathering occurred for a duration of three months. The research team was in frequent contact with participants to encourage sustained involvement. Two statistics tests were used to analyze the data in the study; an Anderson-Darling Normality Test and Pearson Correlation. The results revealed that sustained usage was not consistent amongst adolescent participants and that a correlation existed between exercise motives and the sustained use of wearable technology.