Promoting Youth Physical Activity in Rural Southern Communities: Practitioner Perceptions of Environmental Opportunities and Barriers
Promoting Youth Physical Activity in Rural Southern Communities: Practitioner Perceptions of Environmental Opportunities and Barriers
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DOI：
10.1111/jrh.12072
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Melton, Karen M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Edwards, Michael B.;Theriault, Daniel S.;Melton, Karen M.
目的：对青少年体育活动的研究主要集中在城市地区。农村青少年比城市青少年更有可能缺乏体育锻炼，从而导致肥胖和慢性疾病的风险更高。研究目标是：(1)确定农村地区青少年体育活动的机会和障碍；(2)确定促进或抑制促进青少年体育活动的农村社区特征。方法：对美国南部2个农村县的专家进行了30次深度访谈。受访者来自多个部门的不同职位，基于他们对社区政策和青少年体育活动计划的专业知识。调查结果：被调查者认为球场、自然设施和学校体育是青少年体育活动的主要资源，但他们对机会是丰富还是稀缺存在分歧。物理距离、社会隔离、缺乏社区服务和交通被确定为主要障碍。当地的社交网络促进了政治行动和志愿者招募，以支持项目。然而，社区往往缺乏维持倡议所需的人力资本。种族分裂影响了人们对机遇的看法。尽管存在分歧，但也有集中资源创造和维持体育活动机会的例子。结论：发展伙伴关系和利用当地资源可能对克服农村地区促进身体活动的障碍至关重要。建立和维持农村青年体育活动项目可能需要教会领袖、学校官员、卫生保健工作者和合作推广的参与。将资源分配给现有的社区人员和志愿者进行继续教育可能是有价值的。
Purpose: Research on youth physical activity has focused on urban areas. Rural adolescents are more likely to be physically inactive than urban youth, contributing to higher risk of obesity and chronic diseases. Study objectives were to: (1) identify perceived opportunities and barriers to youth physical activity within a rural area and (2) identify rural community characteristics that facilitate or inhibit efforts to promote youth physical activity.Methods: Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with expert informants in 2 rural southern US counties. Interviewees were recruited from diverse positions across multiple sectors based on their expert knowledge of community policies and programs for youth physical activity.Findings: Informants saw ball fields, natural amenities, and school sports as primary resources for youth physical activity, but they were divided on whether opportunities were abundant or scarce. Physical distance, social isolation, lack of community offerings, and transportation were identified as key barriers. Local social networks facilitated political action and volunteer recruitment to support programs. However, communities often lacked human capital to sustain initiatives. Racial divisions influenced perceptions of opportunities. Despite divisions, there were also examples of pooling resources to create and sustain physical activity opportunities.Conclusions: Developing partnerships and leveraging local resources may be essential to overcoming barriers for physical activity promotion in rural areas. Involvement of church leaders, school officials, health care workers, and cooperative extension is likely needed to establish and sustain youth rural physical activity programs. Allocating resources to existing community personnel and volunteers for continuing education may be valuable.