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Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study

Schools have the potential to promote physical activity (PA) in adolescents through physical education (PE) and extra-curricular PA. The aims of this study were to firstly understand the experiences of adolescent females who participated in a school-based walking programme (the Walking In ScHools (W...

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Autores principales: Carlin, Angela, Murphy, Marie H., Gallagher, Alison M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6463142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30909547
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children6030049
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author Carlin, Angela
Murphy, Marie H.
Gallagher, Alison M.
author_facet Carlin, Angela
Murphy, Marie H.
Gallagher, Alison M.
author_sort Carlin, Angela
collection PubMed
description Schools have the potential to promote physical activity (PA) in adolescents through physical education (PE) and extra-curricular PA. The aims of this study were to firstly understand the experiences of adolescent females who participated in a school-based walking programme (the Walking In ScHools (WISH) study) and secondly, to assess the potential for schools to further promote PA outside of structured PE. A sample of female participants (n = 45, mean age 13.1 years) who participated in the WISH study were randomly selected to participate in focus group discussions, to explore their experiences of the intervention. In addition, an online survey was distributed to all post-primary schools (n = 208) in Northern Ireland to assess the provision of extra-curricular PA and further evaluate the feasibility of the WISH study. In total, six focus groups were conducted. Walking during the school day was viewed as an acceptable form of PA by adolescent females, providing an opportunity to be active with friends, and helped participants overcome barriers previously associated with being active at school. Responding schools (n = 59) identified adolescent females and non-sporty pupils as sub-groups who would benefit most from participation in a school-based walking programme. This study has highlighted that the delivery of a walking programme within the school setting is acceptable, warranted and practically feasible from the point of view of adolescent females and key stakeholders within the school setting.
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spelling pubmed-64631422019-04-16 Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study Carlin, Angela Murphy, Marie H. Gallagher, Alison M. Children (Basel) Article Schools have the potential to promote physical activity (PA) in adolescents through physical education (PE) and extra-curricular PA. The aims of this study were to firstly understand the experiences of adolescent females who participated in a school-based walking programme (the Walking In ScHools (WISH) study) and secondly, to assess the potential for schools to further promote PA outside of structured PE. A sample of female participants (n = 45, mean age 13.1 years) who participated in the WISH study were randomly selected to participate in focus group discussions, to explore their experiences of the intervention. In addition, an online survey was distributed to all post-primary schools (n = 208) in Northern Ireland to assess the provision of extra-curricular PA and further evaluate the feasibility of the WISH study. In total, six focus groups were conducted. Walking during the school day was viewed as an acceptable form of PA by adolescent females, providing an opportunity to be active with friends, and helped participants overcome barriers previously associated with being active at school. Responding schools (n = 59) identified adolescent females and non-sporty pupils as sub-groups who would benefit most from participation in a school-based walking programme. This study has highlighted that the delivery of a walking programme within the school setting is acceptable, warranted and practically feasible from the point of view of adolescent females and key stakeholders within the school setting. MDPI 2019-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6463142/ /pubmed/30909547 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children6030049 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Carlin, Angela
Murphy, Marie H.
Gallagher, Alison M.
Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title_full Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title_fullStr Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title_full_unstemmed Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title_short Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
title_sort using the school environment to promote walking amongst adolescent females: a mixed-method study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6463142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30909547
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children6030049
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