Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 6;18(9):4954.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094954.

Adolescents' Perspectives on the Barriers and Facilitators of Physical Activity: An Updated Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies

João Martins  1   2   3   4 , João Costa  5 , Hugo Sarmento  6 , Adilson Marques  3   4 , Cláudio Farias  7   8 , Marcos Onofre  1 , Miguel González Valeiro  2
Affiliations

Adolescents' Perspectives on the Barriers and Facilitators of Physical Activity: An Updated Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies

João Martins et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Listening to adolescents' voices has been important to promote meaningful physical activity (PA) opportunities. Therefore, an updated systematic review of the available qualitative literature on adolescents' perspectives on the barriers and facilitators of PA was conducted, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Studies published between 2014 (date of the last systematic review) and 2020 were searched in the Web of Science, EBSCO, and SCOPUS databases. Based on the inclusion criteria applied, 30 out of 8069 studies were included in the review. A thematic analysis was used to inductively and deductively analyze the perspectives of ~1250 adolescents (13-18 years). The studies took place in 13 countries from different continents. The main PA barriers and facilitators of PA were presented and discussed around five higher-order themes: (1) Individual factors (e.g., psychological-motivation, self-efficacy; cognitive-knowledge, understanding; physical-motor skills); (2) social and relational factors (family, friends, significant others); (3) PA nature factors (fun, school-based PA and physical education); (4) life factors (time and competing activities; life-course); and (5) sociocultural and environmental factors (e.g., availability/access to PA facilities, programs; urban/rural zones). By transnationally framing adolescents' voices, this study provides updated evidence and discusses innovative implications for developing tailored interventions and pedagogical strategies aimed at promoting active and healthy lifestyles.

Keywords: correlates; exercise; physical education; qualitative synthesis; sport; young people’s voices; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram for study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bull F.C., Al-Ansari S.S., Biddle S., Borodulin K., Buman M.P., Cardon G., Carty C., Chaput J.P., Chastin S., Chou R., et al. World Health Organization 2020 Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour. Br. J. Sports Med. 2020;54:1451–1462. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guthold R., Stevens G.A., Riley L.M., Bull F.C. Global trends in insufficient physical activity among adolescents: A pooled analysis of 298 population-based surveys with 1·6 million participants. Lancet Child Adolesc. Health. 2020;4:23–35. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(19)30323-2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marques A., Henriques-Neto D., Peralta M., Martins J., Demetriou Y., Schönbach D.M.I., De Matos M.G. Prevalence of Physical Activity among Adolescents from 105 Low, Middle, and High-Income Countries. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2020;17:3145. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093145. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sallis J.F., Bull F., Guthold R., Heath G.W., Inoue S., Kelly P., Oyeyemi A.L., Perez L.G., Richards J., Hallal P.C. Progress in physical activity over the Olympic quadrennium. Lancet. 2016;388:1325–1336. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30581-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sallis J., Owen N. Ecological models of health behavior. In: Glanz K., Rimer B., Viswanath K., editors. Health Behavior. Theory, Research and Practice. Joissey-Bass; San Francisco, CA, USA: 2015. pp. 43–64.

Publication types