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theses

Obesity rates among teenagers have increased as their physical activity levels have simultaneously declined. Obesity and related disorders disproportionally affect teenagers from minority backgrounds and low-income households. To counteract the steady incline in adolescent obesity, public health educators should work to increase the physical activity of high school students, given the well-known health benefits of regular physical activity. By taking perceived barriers to physical activity into consideration, interventions that aim to improve teenagers’ physical activity may be more effective because barriers have a strong effect on health behavior changes. The aim of this research project was to create a comprehensive tool to assess high school students’ perceived barriers to physical activity. An initial list of 110 potential barriers was compiled from previous research with adults and an extensive literature review. A total of 1,201 high school students in low-income areas of New Jersey completed the survey, which also measured physical activity level. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a final scale that contained 45 perceived barriers to physical activity, including three internal barriers sub-scales (n = 28 items) and two external barriers sub-scales (n = 17 items). The final scale exhibited acceptable levels of internal consistency, reliability over time and criterion validity. Female high school students were found to perceive significantly more barriers to physical activity than males and reported a significantly lower physical activity level than males, which is consistent with previous studies. Perceived barriers were primarily related to motivation and weather, a lack of exercise equipment, and lacking an exercise partner. Physical activity interventions should provide more activities of interest, more indoor activity opportunities (e.g., exercise DVDs), and address other pertinent barriers in order to improve high school students’ physical activity levels. Further research is necessary to confirm the factor structure of the scale developed in this study, and the reliability and validity of this survey among other teenage audiences. The Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity Scale may help to inform the development of interventions by identifying specific barriers that should be addressed in order to help the target audience become more active.

ETD_6146

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

by Christy L. Hullings

doi:10.7282/T3RR210P

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.