What Happened in ‘The HERizon Project’?—Process Evaluation of a Multi-Arm Remote Physical Activity Intervention for Adolescent Girls

Abstract

This mixed-methods process evaluation examines the reach, recruitment, fidelity, adherence, acceptability, mechanisms of impact, and context of remote 12-week physical activity (PA) interventions for adolescent girls named The HERizon Project. The study was comprised of four arms—a PA programme group, a behaviour change support group, a combined group, and a comparison group. Data sources included intervention deliverer and participant logbooks (100 and 71% respective response rates, respectively), exit surveys (72% response rate), and semi-structured focus groups/interviews conducted with a random subsample of participants from each of the intervention arms (n = 34). All intervention deliverers received standardised training and successfully completed pre-intervention competency tasks. Based on self-report logs, 99% of mentors adhered to the call guide, and 100% of calls and live workouts were offered. Participant adherence and intervention receipt were also high for all intervention arms. Participants were generally satisfied with the intervention components; however, improvements were recommended for the online social media community within the PA programme and combined intervention arms. Autonomy, sense of accomplishment, accountability, and routine were identified as factors facilitating participant willingness to adhere to the intervention across all intervention arms. Future remote interventions should consider structured group facilitation to encourage a genuine sense of community among participants.

Interventions targeting children and young people’s physical activity behavior at home: A systematic review

“…Social support through interaction with others may be important for sustaining children’s motivation for AVG, considering the greater dropout observed with single player vs. multiplayer AVGs games [ 55 ]. Social support from activity mentors and other participants joining home-based online physical activity sessions was reported as facilitators for engaging adolescent girls [ 56 ].…”

“…However, this may not be affordable or scalable to population level, suggesting other modes of intervention should be considered. In a multi-setting intervention with adolescent females completing live online workouts at home, other participants and scheduled messages from researchers provided social support, and motivated participants to complete physical activity sessions [ 56 ].…”

Motor Competence Among Irish Adolescents: An Investigation of Sex Differences and Relatedness Between Fundamental Movement Skills and Functional Movement

“…While physical education curricula is not the sole contributor to these movement skill issues, our findings suggest that there are gaps in Irish physical education curricula that may not be optimally developing particular skills among students. To promote object-control skills among females, several studies have cited the importance of providing girls with autonomous, feasible challenges, and interesting learning experiences in both physical education and sport (Cowley et al, 2021; 2022; Farmer et al, 2017). For males, promoting locomotor-based play and such curriculum strands as dance and gymnastics should nurture their deficiencies in flexibility and mobility to help them develop a rounded skillset that meets their activity needs (Coulter et al, 2020; Garcia-Pinillos et al, 2018).…”

Strategies for recruitment of adolescent girls into physical activity programmes: a systematic review protocol

“…Recent qualitative research has examined adolescent girls' perceptions of PA, the types of PA programmes they are looking for, and facilitators and barriers to their participation [18][19][20][21] . Individual study authors list the recruitment strategies employed in their programmes, such as presentations from researchers or teachers [22][23][24] , taster sessions in advance of signing up for the entire programme 25 , informational emails sent by schools 24 , posters 24 , flyers 26 , invitational letters to parents 23 , incentives for participation 23 , social media 26,27 , and more.…”