The Barriers to Adolescents’ Physical Activity

Abstract

The habit of engaging in physical activity is one of the many life habits that are developed during adolescence. Due to a variety of barriers, many adolescents do not meet the daily physical activity recommendations. This study aimed to determine the barriers to engaging in physical activity among adolescents, i.e. whether there are differences in the barriers to physical activity between male and female adolescents, and whether these barriers differ depending on age. The sample of subjects included 1350 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18 (672 boys, and 678 girls). The research utilised a customised questionnaire that was adapted from similar pre-existing questionnaires, and it contained a total of nine questions. All questions were of the close-ended type, and each question was rated on a four-point Likert scale. The Chi-square test was used to determine the differences according to gender and age. Based on the obtained results, it was determined that girls reported a higher number of barriers in comparison to boys, although there is no statistically significant difference, and that the highest number of barriers was reported at the age of 15 (p< .05).