In recent years, migratory phenomena have changed the composition of Spanish society. There are many studies that explore the healthy habits of young adolescents, but few focus on young immigrants. The purpose of this study is to examine the causal relationships between certain factors that influence the health of immigrant youth and sports. The sample consisted of 173 students enrolled in secondary education in the city of Cuenca. The structural model confirms the relationship between the latent variables and sports. Specifically, we obtained a positive influence of an active lifestyle (regular physical activity and exercise) and a negative influence for the remaining variables (alcohol consumption, unhealthy foods, self-medication and tobacco consumption in the family). Physical education should promote healthy lifestyles; greater coordination between physical education and other subjects involved in education and the promotion of health are necessary because we consider that this task is not exclusive to physical education.

Adolescence is a critical period for the acquisition of healthy habits. Every day there is more evidence that lifestyle has a deeply influence on the health of individuals. For this reason, the adoption of healthy habits or changing bad habits will provide beneficial effects on both health and people´s quality of life. Sport practice in adolescents is being analyzed through this paper. Our empirical work has been focused on teen immigrant population who currently lives in the town of Cuenca (Spain).Therefore, a survey has been conducted among this kind of population in order to obtain a complete profile of them and to make a comparison with the teen native population in Cuenca in forthcoming research.