Barriers and Facilitators of Physical Activity Participation in Adolescent Girls: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews

Abstract

Background: Persistent low physical activity (PA) levels among adolescent girls constitute a public health concern that calls for immediate and evidence-based policy action. This systematic review (SR) aimed to summarize evidence from SRs examining the barriers and facilitators of PA participation in adolescent girls. The objectives were to provide a synthesis of the available evidence and identify key areas for fostering gender-responsive action and policy implications.Methods: A comprehensive search of relevant SR and meta-analyses were performed in PubMed and Cochrane Library, until February 2021. Studies were included if they were SRs or meta-analyses, included adolescent girls aged between 10 and 19 years, and described barriers or facilitators of PA. Two independent authors performed the screening of potentially eligible studies and both assessed the methodological quality of included studies using the AMSTAR 2 tool. The barriers and facilitators were synthesized at environmental, interpersonal, and individual levels.Results: A total of eight SRs were included in the qualitative synthesis. The most frequent barriers identified were the lack of support from peers, family, and teachers, and the lack of time. The most reported facilitators were weight loss, and support from peers, family, and teachers. Key areas for action and policy implementation include an inclusive approach to curriculum development to address gender norms; adequate training of professionals so they have a range of skills to ensure inclusion of adolescent girls; environmental changes in and out of schools to stimulate participation, to allow adolescent girls to be active in a safe and attractive environment; multistakeholder support at local, regional, and national level in incorporating a gender-responsive approach toward PA participation.Conclusion: The results highlight a variety of factors that influences the PA participation of adolescent girls. For the attainment of effective policies that increase PA levels in adolescent girls, it is essential to engage several stakeholders at different levels in incorporating a gender-responsive approach toward PA participation.Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO, identifier: CRD42020204023.

Barriers to Physical Activity in Spanish Children and Adolescents: Sex and Educational Stage Differences

“…In the college period, only girls reported further increased barriers of time and dislike for PA practice in comparison to secondary. In this regard, the above stated ideas regarding greater tiredness in older girls and their interest in other activities different from PA for their leisure time could explain our result (Jodkowska et al, 2015 ; Corr et al, 2019 ; Rosselli et al, 2020 ; Cowley et al, 2021 ; Duffey et al, 2021 ; Lazarowicz et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In this regard, despite being previously validated, our questionnaire did not include body image items, which may be considered as a limitation and should also be addressed in future studies. Interestingly, in our Spanish sample, disliking barriers resulted less rated than time barriers which may be related to the increase in school workload or even in home responsibilities (Corr et al, 2019 ; Duffey et al, 2021 ). This seems to especially affect females, since in the same way as it occurs with disliking reasons, female students in our study reported greater time barriers than their male counterparts, which agrees with other studies (Rosselli et al, 2020 ; Lazarowicz et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In fact, tiredness together with body image reasons have been considered the most relevant perceived barriers to perform PA, especially in females (Fernández et al, 2017 ). Previous research has suggested that girls feel a pressure to look good when exercising and reluctance to sweat and wear not-fitting uniforms, altogether results in serious barriers to participation (Rosselli et al, 2020 ; Cowley et al, 2021 ; Duffey et al, 2021 ). In this regard, despite being previously validated, our questionnaire did not include body image items, which may be considered as a limitation and should also be addressed in future studies.…”

Catch me if you can! How French adolescents seize social occasions and opportunities to be active

“…One other interesting result was the different use of social occasions to accumulate MVPA according to the adolescents’ profiles. The literature has documented consistently that “lack of time” was one of the most frequently reported barriers to engagement in PA [ 9 , 10 ]. However, our results showed that HEPA active adolescents were able to seize MVPA opportunities in different social occasions, allowing them to reach the recommended PA thresholds.…”

Can Primary School Mathematics Performance Be Predicted by Longitudinal Changes in Physical Fitness and Activity Indicators?

“…Attaining low levels of PA and the attendant poor aerobic fitness is associated with declines in academic performance (AP) ( Chaddock et al, 2011 ), the deterioration of brain structures, cognitive abilities, and general brain function ( Sibley and Etnier, 2003 ; Castelli et al, 2007 ; Chaddock et al, 2010 ; Donnelly et al, 2016 ; García-Hermoso et al, 2021 ). Increasing PA has therefore, long been suggested to exert a positive impact on AP, especially since learning complex movements stimulates the frontal cortex of the brain, which is also active in the learning and problem-solving process ( Daly-Smith et al, 2018 ; Singh et al, 2019 ; Duffey et al, 2021 ).…”