Background Few previous studies have examined the influence of instrumental and emotional social support on physical activity (PA) longitudinally in underserved adolescents. Purpose This longitudinal study was a secondary analysis of the Active by Choice Today (ACT) trial examining whether instrumental social support predicts increases in PA in underserved adolescents, above and beyond emotional social support provided by family or peers. Methods Students in 6th grade (N=1422, 73% African American, 54% female, Mage=11 years) in the ACT trial participated. At baseline and 19 weeks, previously validated measures of social support (family instrumental, family emotional, and peer emotional) were completed and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was assessed using 7-day accelerometry estimates. Results A mixed ANCOVA demonstrated that baseline (p=.02) and change in family instrumental support (p=.01), but not emotional support from family or peers, predicted increases in MVPA across a 19-week period. Conclusions Future interventions in underserved adolescents should enhance opportunities for instrumental support for PA.

This article considers issues of educational inequality in the U.S. South from a social work/ social justice perspective. After a review of existing literature and discussion of cultural versus structural explanations for race and socioeconomic status gaps in academic achievement, findings are presented from a study examining child-, classroom-, and school-level factors that influence academic achievement among public school children in the South. Although a sizeable minority of southern children attend schools that are segregated along racial and socioeconomic lines, and although these schools are different in various aspects of educational environment, once family structure, parental characteristics, the use of ability grouping, and rural school location were taken into account, no influence of race on achievement remained. Implications for social work policy and practice are discussed.