Bucking Mid‐Life Inactivity: How Social Identity Processes Facilitate Zwift Participation for Mid‐Life Adults
School of Psychology, University of Sussex; Institute of Applied Sciences, University of Chichester; School of Health, Education, Policing, and Sciences, Staffordshire University
How they used Delve
A team at the University of Sussex, Chichester and Staffordshire used Delve to code interviews and two-week exercise diaries from seventeen mid-life Zwift users, building a shared, secure code repository for collaborative oversight during an abductive thematic analysis.
“Second, handwritten notes were extracted, then refined and expanded using qualitative coding software (https://delvetool.com). Continuous adjustments were made to these codes, culminating in the creation of an online, secure code repository for collaborative data oversight.”
- Field
- social identity / exercise and physical activity psychology
- Data
- Three-stage design with seventeen Zwift users aged 40-64: an initial semi-structured interview, a two-week post-exercise diary (142 entries from 15 participants, mean 9.5 entries and 1,587 words each, typed or video), and a follow-up interview with 14 participants averaging 49 minutes
- Approach
- Abductive thematic analysis following Thompson (2022): familiarisation, coding in Delve, codebook construction, theme development by nesting and merging codes, theoretical exploration, contextual comparison, and a critical-friends process
- Data types
- Interviews, Documents
Abstract
ABSTRACT While physical activity generally declines in middle‐aged adults, group exercise participation among 40‐64‐year‐old is increasing. This rise may be due to the accessibility of online group exercise formats and their ability to reflect members’ identities. This research explores how social identification processes facilitate participation in Zwift, an online group exercise platform. Seventeen Zwift participants aged 40–64 were recruited for three data collection stages: (1) an initial semi‐structured interview on exercise history and Zwift usage; (2) a two‐week post‐exercise diary capturing social identification experiences; and (3) a follow‐up interview to discuss topics from the first two stages. Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis. Zwift supports three levels of social identity abstraction: (1) Identity Continuity, maintaining a cyclist identity through online cycling; (2) A Compatible New Identity as a Zwifter, formed through group interaction and social support; and (3) New Group Membership, developed through in‐team belonging, recognition, and social status. Mid‐life is a period of transition and identity change. Findings in this study suggest four ways that online platforms could facilitate social identification within online exercise platforms, namely (a) empower selection via perceived life‐stage similarity and age, (b) enable ‘digital proximity’ via text chat and participant on‐screen avatars, (c) enable the common fate of shared real‐time exercise experiences, and (d) facilitate interaction and belonging via a pre and post‐exercise ‘digital clubhouse’ via a social media page.
Citation
Toby Richards, Melissa Day, Matthew J. Slater, Matthew J. Easterbrook, Sean G. Figgins (2024). Bucking Mid‐Life Inactivity: How Social Identity Processes Facilitate Zwift Participation for Mid‐Life Adults. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.70021