A supportive school environment increases physical activity among teens, especially girls. Addressing safety and bullying could further encourage participation in school sports and exercise.
Three out of four teenagers don’t exercise enough, and this problem is especially prevalent among female students.
However, a recent study from the University of Georgia reveals that fostering a healthier school environment might boost teenage physical activity.
According to lead study author Janani R. Thapa, schools are crucial in helping adolescents form healthy behaviors like good eating habits. The same holds true for exercise.
The findings were recently published in the Journal of Adolescence.
“The length of recess, physical facilities, and social environments at schools have been found to affect physical activity among students,” said Thapa, an associate professor of health policy and management at UGA’s College of Public Health.
Georgia has put policies and programs into place to increase physical activity in K–12 schools. Thapa has been a key figure in these programs’ evaluations.
Declining Physical Activity and Gender Disparities
“Over time, the state has observed declining levels of physical activity among all adolescents, but the rate is higher among female middle and high school students,” she said.
Thapa suspected that school climate could play an important role in determining how comfortable students feel participating in school sports or other physical activities. School climate includes factors such as social support, safety, and bullying.
“We do not know much about the role of school climate on physical activity,” said Thapa. “There must have been barriers that were faced by certain groups of students. Hence, we wanted to investigate the difference by gender.”
Using data from a statewide survey of over 360,000 Georgia high school students that included questions about physical activity levels and school climate, Thapa and her co-authors were able to test that relationship.
The data included eight characteristics of climate: school connectedness, peer social support, adult social support, cultural acceptance, physical environment, school safety, peer victimization (bullying), and school support environment.
Gender Differences in Physical Activity and Bullying
Overall, female students reported less physical activity than their male counterparts, only 35% were active compared to 57% of males. And physical activity declined steadily from ninth grade to 12th grade for both genders.
However, students of both genders were more physically active when the school climate was perceived to be positive across most measures.
One thing that stood out was the influence of bullying. Female students who reported being bullied were more likely to be physically active, while male students who reported being bullied were less likely to be physically active.
Bullying was the only measure of school climate that differed for male and female students. This disparity could be explained, said the authors, by the different norms about exercise and masculine versus feminine ideals.
“For example, female students who are active in sports and physically active may not fit the gender norm and hence may face bullying,” said Thapa.
These findings suggest that K-12 schools that want to promote participation in physical activity should consider how to improve students’ sense of safety at school and bolster peer and adult support of exercise.
Reference: “School climate-related determinants of physical activity among high school girls and boys” by Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, Isha Metzger, Justin Ingels, Kiran Thapa and Kathryn Chiang, 24 April 2022, Journal of Adolescence.
DOI: 10.1002/jad.12052
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