Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Material and Methods
2.1. Phase 1—Focus Groups with Adolescent Females
2.1.1. Sample Selection
2.1.2. Focus Groups
2.1.3. Data Analysis
2.2. Phase 2—Survey of Post-Primary Schools
2.2.1. Sample Selection
2.2.2. Survey
2.2.3. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Phase 1—Focus Groups with Adolescent Females
3.1.1. Facilitators to Being More Active During the School Day
3.1.2. Walking as a Form of Physical Activity
3.1.3. Intervention Components
3.2. Phase 2—Survey of Post-Primary Schools
3.2.1. Demographics of Responding Schools
3.2.2. Provision of Extra-Curricular Activities
3.2.3. Influences on Adolescent Physical Activity from the Schools’ Perspective
3.2.4. Perceptions of Adolescent Physical Activity Participation
3.2.5. Feasibility of the WISH Study within the School Setting
4. Discussion
5. Strengths and Limitations of the Study
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Focus Groups |
---|
What are your favourite types of physical activity? |
What factors influence your own physical activity? What people? What are the barriers towards your participation in physical activity? |
What factors or approaches would encourage you to participate, or participate more, in physical activity? |
Think back to when you first received information about this study, what encouraged you to sign up or take part in the study? |
What do you think schools could do to help people your age become more active? |
What do you think about the walking intervention and its components, for example, walking during school, walk leaders, rewards? |
Are there any other thoughts or ideas you would like to share that haven’t previously been covered in today’s discussion? |
Advantages of Walking | Quote |
---|---|
Not a ‘sport’ | “I liked it because it wasn’t anything too strenuous, ‘cause we can’t really do much, cause like we wear a skirt…” (INT, Group 5) |
“It doesn’t require too much energy, you don’t actually have to be good at sport to walk” (INT, Group 6) | |
“It doesn’t involve any skill or anything, if you’re not good you can still do it.” (CON, Group 1) | |
“You don’t realise you’re doing it, like when you’re in your PE kit and you’re running about and your teacher’s shouting at you to run faster you’re like aw I hate doing this but you know when you’re walking you’re like doing it every day so you can do it at your own pace.” (CON, Group 1) | |
Acceptable form of activity | “Again its noticeable if you’re going, if you were to go out at lunch and run about the school you’d be a bit… everyone would be a wee bit like what are they doing but whenever it’s just walking, because everyone walks anyway so no one passes any remarks… we weren’t embarrassed walking around.” (INT, Group 5) |
“Because you can’t get hurt, you can do it at your own pace.” (CON, Group 2) | |
“It doesn’t involve any skill or anything, if you’re not good you can still do it.” (CON, Group 1) | |
Not competitive | “It’s not like if you’re running or something you might be really slow, and there’s other really sporty people that you think might judge you at it, like you’re all walking, it’s just walking.” (CON, Group 1) |
“People can stay at the same pace without being competitive with everybody.” (CON, Group 2) |
Intervention Component | Quote |
---|---|
Opportunity for socialising | “I found it like really good to go, like a way I could meet up with my friends from other classes and stuff, and it was a really good way to meet other people in our year.” (INT, Group 6) |
“It’s just like a wee (small) club that you can like go and talk to your friends while you exercise so it’s like you don’t know you’re exercising so it’s just like a wee (small) group, you’re like exercising without realising you’re exercising, you don’t really think of it that way.” (CON, Group 1) | |
Rewards | “Yeah, you’re getting a reward for doing it, it encouraged people to go.” (INT, Group 5) |
“Making sure you do it.” (INT, Group 3) | |
“It makes you feel better for what you’ve done… feels like you’ve actually did something.” (INT, Group 3) | |
Walk Leaders | “I think that erm, when the leaders were like shouting at and giving you like, it made you feel under pressure to walk faster and you didn’t get like a proper pace.” (INT, Group 3) |
“Yeah like at least whenever were not with teachers and stuff it just looks like we’re going for a bit of a dander (short walk) and having a bit of craic (fun).” (INT, Group 5) | |
“You’d have to get along with them though, you wouldn’t want to walk with someone that you didn’t like, you wouldn’t want to be near somebody you didn’t like.” (CON, Group 1) |
Outside Link | Number of Responding Schools | Percentage of Responding Schools |
---|---|---|
Qualified/professional coaches | 50 | 84.7 |
Local sports clubs | 48 | 81.4 |
Local sports centres | 37 | 62.7 |
Sports development officers | 35 | 59.3 |
National governing bodies | 29 | 49.2 |
Exercise leaders/instructors | 29 | 49.2 |
Regional sports council | 28 | 47.5 |
PE advisers/advisory teachers | 21 | 35.6 |
Local health promotion unit/officers | 17 | 28.8 |
School sports association | 14 | 23.7 |
Other schools/further education colleges | 13 | 22.0 |
Universities | 13 | 22.0 |
Other † | 2 | 3.4 |
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Carlin, A.; Murphy, M.H.; Gallagher, A.M. Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study. Children 2019, 6, 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6030049
Carlin A, Murphy MH, Gallagher AM. Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study. Children. 2019; 6(3):49. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6030049
Chicago/Turabian StyleCarlin, Angela, Marie H. Murphy, and Alison M. Gallagher. 2019. "Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study" Children 6, no. 3: 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6030049
APA StyleCarlin, A., Murphy, M. H., & Gallagher, A. M. (2019). Using the School Environment to Promote Walking amongst Adolescent Females: A Mixed-Method Study. Children, 6(3), 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6030049