Considering sex/gender in interventions to promote children’s and adolescents’ leisure-time physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Aim The main objectives of this systematic review were to evaluate the effects of interventions on leisure-time PA of boys and girls and to appraise the extent to which studies have taken sex/gender into account. Subject and methods PRISMA guidelines were followed. Two researchers independently screened studies for eligibility and assessed the risk of bias. Descriptive analyses were conducted to evaluate intervention effects in relation to the consideration of sex/gender in the studies based on a newly developed checklist. Additionally, meta-analyses were performed to determine the effect of interventions on girls’ and boys’ leisure-time PA. Results Overall 31 unique studies reported 44 outcomes on leisure-time PA and 20,088 participants were included in the current study. Consideration of sex/gender aspects in studies is low. PA outcomes with statistically significant same/similar effects in boys and girls showed higher quality of reporting sex/gender aspects of theoretical and/or conceptual linkages with sex/gender, measurement instruments, intervention delivery, location and interventionists and participant flow than PA outcomes without significant effects in both boys and girls or effects only in boys or girls. Interventions had a small but significant effect on girls (number of included studies (k) = 9, g = 0.220, p = .003) and boys (k = 7, g = 0.193, p = .020) leisure-time PA. Conclusion Higher reporting of sex/gender aspects may improve leisure-time PA of boys and girls. Nevertheless, there remains a need to address sufficient consideration of sex/gender aspects in interventions in the context of PA.

Leisure Time Activities and Subjective Happiness in Early Adolescents from Three Ibero-American Countries: The Cases of Brazil, Chile and Spain

“…Furthermore, leisure time activities may also take gender differences and the promotion of equal opportunities for well-being into account. Consequently, the design of interventions should address gender differences in parental engagement in leisure time [ 38 ] and differential factors influencing motivation in boys and girls [ 39 ]. Thus, Ibero-American policies to promote child well-being should consider the importance of leisure time, specifically active leisure time with family and the differential factors influencing girls and boys.…”

“It’s like feeling everyone will be looking at you, but in reality, no one cares.” A qualitative visual methods study exploring adolescent males’ relatedness in physical activity.

“…Quantitative studies have found the BPN of relatedness positively affects autonomous motivations to be active in PE and leisure PA settings for adolescents (Schulze et al, 2022;R. L. White et al, 2021).…”

“…In PE, BPNs of autonomy and competency were affected more by the teaching environment, whereas relatedness was influenced by their peer group (Vasconcellos et al, 2020). SDT studies have found that leisure-time, nonorganized PA with peers were particularly salient to adolescent males, and gender and social identity had not been adequately considered in PA interventions (Schulze et al, 2022). A qualitative inquiry of peer motivational climate in youth sport, using content analysis to examine topics such as team competition and relatedness support, found more research was needed on the effect peers had on PA motivation (Vazou et al, 2005).…”

Exploring the Impact of Gender Difference on 3-6 Years Old Children’s Physical Activity Levels

“…Even so, as far as gender in PAL is concerned, gender is still rarely investigated in the field of preschool education. According to multiple review articles, Schlund et al (2021a), Schlund et al (2021b), Schulze et al (2021), and Kippe and Lagestad (2018) found that gender is inadequate in related studies to a large extent. Some identified affecting factors such as ethnicity (Hu et al, 2021), semester of birth (Navarro-Patón et al, 2021), and SEND also failed to be considered in the previous studies.…”