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Physical activity levels among adolescents decline during their teenage years and into early adulthood. Socio-economic background plays an important role in adolescents' physical activity, as children from rural communities participate less regularly in physical activities due to a lack of access to facilities, the cost of programmes and in general due to limited facilities. The focus of public health researchers has shifted from individual motivational theories on the participation in physical activity to the ecological theory, which includes the effects of community environments on health matters. Significant differences prevail in physical activity participation patterns in various geographical areas and different demographic groups. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to assess the access to facilities in a semi-urban area and the physical activity levels of high school pupils. 155 high school pupils from Bophelong, a semi-urban area in the Gauteng province, voluntarily and anonymously completed questionnaires regarding their physical activity participation, accessibility of stores, recreational facilities and other important structures within their neighbourhood. Results indicated that pupils from a low socio-economic community had limited access to facilities such as parks, recreation centres, gymnasia and fitness centres, which are known to induce physical activity. Pupils actively commuted considerable distances daily to and from school, contributing substantially to their overall physical activity. Participation of the minority in school sport was evident, but apart from walking and inadequate school sport participation, few opportunities existed for adolescents from this semi-urban high school to engage in moderate recreational physical activities.

The aim of this study was to determine the utility of a self administered questionnaire on maturity status (MSQ) (which also included questions on somatic development) by comparing it with biological age (as determined by the Greulich-Pyle x-ray [GP] method). The MSQ was compiled based on the sexual maturity stages developed by Tanner in 1962, while biological age was determined by the Greulich-Pyle (GP) method. Rugby players (N=18) were tested over a period of three years (15.9 -17.9 years old). The GP method classified the players into early developers (ED) (n=4), average developers (AD) (n=13) and one (n=1) late developer. Discriminant function analysis identified seven from 10 questions at the mean age of 15.7 years regarding sexual and somatic maturity to discriminate between ED and AD. Only 25% of the ED and 61% of the AD could, however, be classified back into their original groups by making use of the Jackknife statistical method. A further stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that three of the seven questions had better discriminative ability, although cross validation by means of the Jackknife method indicated that only 75% of the ED and 38.5% of the AD could be classified correctly by means of these three variables. It was concluded that the discriminality of the MSQ was not adequate, but that some variables have more potential for classification purposes than others. Refinement of the instrument is recommended.