Physical Activity Among Suburban and Rural School-Aged Youth: Facilitators and Barriers

Thurkettle, Mary Ann

Friday, July 15, 2011: 4:25 PM

Mary Ann Thurkettle, PhD, RN
School of Nursing, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA

Learning Objective 1: Cite facilitators and barriers to physical activity as perceived by suburban and rural youth.

Learning Objective 2: Explain the photostory data elicitation process.

Purpose: This study is one of a series, preliminary to a health services research project focusing on transfer of research advances to community use. The purpose is to contribute to increasing knowledge about barriers and facilitators from the perspective of youth from suburban and rural settings. A previous study examined urban populations. Research Questions include: 1)What are the perceived barriers to engaging in physical activity? 2) What are the perceived facilitators to engaging in physical activity? 3) What are teen perceptions of physical activity in their daily life?

Methods: This study uses a photovoice technique (Wang, 1989) to collect data combined with group dialog and interpretive inquiry analytic techniques. Photovoice involves the use of participant-taken photographs to stimulate thinking and discussion about the phenomenon of interest, physical activity in this study. Twenty participants age 12-17 were recruited through a local school district: ten were from rural settings, ten from suburban settings. At Session 1, participants are given a 24 exposure disposable camera to take 8 pictures, over a two week period, for each of the three categories: barriers, facilitators, and physical activity. At Session 2, cameras are collected and consents verified. At Session 3, participants meet to present, discuss, and help categorize their pictures. At Session 4 they refine and validate the final analysis and propose related strategies to increase physical activities.

Results: The study will be complete by May 2011. The results will be reported and compared with those of an urban population from a previous study

Conclusion: Findings enrich the understanding of factors related to physical activity behavior change and be useful in developing and testing strategies to overcome barriers and to maximize facilitators. Findings provide information for future research to examine the effectiveness of an adolescent intervention program at the community level.

See more of: Community Health Care for Children and Young Adults
See more of: World Academy of Nursing Science: Oral Paper & Posters