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Determinants of Physical Activity for Latino and White Middle School‐Aged Children
Author(s) -
Garcia Aileen S.,
Takahashi Shinya,
AndersonKnott Mindy,
Dev Dipti
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12706
Subject(s) - ethnic group , screen time , physical activity , bivariate analysis , healthy eating , psychology , gerontology , white (mutation) , multivariate analysis , intervention (counseling) , demography , medicine , environmental health , physical therapy , biochemistry , statistics , chemistry , mathematics , psychiatry , sociology , anthropology , gene
BACKGROUND Physical activity (PA) has long been acknowledged to contribute health benefits among children. However, research has consistently shown that PA declines as children grow older. Thus, this study examined the factors which are associated to children's PA in order to identify potential barriers to PA. METHODS Using data from the KidQuest Program, we conducted bivariate and multivariate analyses on survey data collected from fifth to seventh grade students in a small Midwestern city. RESULTS We found that food knowledge, eating breakfast, and talking with family about eating healthy foods, are positively related to PA. On the other hand, screen time is negatively related to PA. In addition, our results evinced differences between ethnicities and found that Latino children's screen time affects their PA levels more than their white counterpart. CONCLUSIONS There are different factors which can be tapped to increase PA among middle school‐aged children. Given the differences between the Latino and white samples especially in screen time, schools should consider individualized intervention, rather than a “one size fits all” program, to increase PA participation.