75% of Teenagers Aren’t Exercising Enough

The study also found that more supportive school environments were associated with students who had higher levels of physical activity.

Three out of four adolescents do not get enough exercise and this problem is especially prevalent among students.

However, a recent study of university of ga reveals that fostering a healthier school environment could boost adolescent physical activity.

According to the study’s lead author, Janani R. Thapa, schools are crucial in helping teens form healthy behaviors, such as good eating habits. The same is true for exercise.

The findings were recently published in the Journal of Adolescence.

“Recess length, physical facilities and social environments in schools have been found to affect physical activity among students,” said Thapa, an associate professor of health policy and management in the UGA School of Public Health. .

Georgia has implemented policies and programs to increase physical activity in K–12 schools. Thapa has been a key figure in the evaluations of these programs.

“Over time, the state has seen declining levels of physical activity among all adolescents, but the rate is highest among middle and high school students,” she said.

Thapa suspected that school climate could play a role in determining how comfortable students feel participating in school sports or other physical activity. School climate includes factors such as social support, safety, and bullying.

“We don’t know much about the role of the school environment on physical activity,” Thapa said. “There must have been barriers that certain groups of students faced. Therefore, we wanted to investigate the difference by gender.”

Using data from a state survey of more than 360,000 Georgia high school students that included questions about physical activity levels and school climate, Thapa and her co-authors were able to test that relationship.

Data included eight climate characteristics: school connectedness, peer social support, adult social support, cultural acceptance, physical environment, school safety, peer victimization (bullying), and supportive school environment.

Overall, female students reported less physical activity than their male counterparts, with only 35% being active compared to 57% of males. And physical activity steadily decreased from 9th grade to 12th grade for both genders.

However, students of both genders were more physically active when school climate was perceived as positive on most measures.

One thing that stood out was the influence of bullying. Female students who reported being bullied were more likely to be physically active, while male students who reported being bullied were less likely to be physically active.

Bullying was the only measure of school climate that differed for male and female students. This disparity could be explained, the authors said, by different norms about exercise and masculine versus feminine ideals.

“For example, female students who play sports and are physically active may not fit the gender norm and thus may be harassed,” Thapa said.

These findings suggest that K-12 schools that want to promote participation in physical activity should consider how to improve students’ sense of safety at school and bolster peer and adult support for exercise.

Reference: “Determinants of physical activity related to school climate among secondary school girls and boys” by Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, Isha Metzger, Justin Ingels, Kiran Thapa, and Kathryn Chiang, April 24, 2022, adolescence diary.
DOI: 10.1002/jad.12052