Motivating adolescents to be physically active: After-school program providers' perceptions of gender and class constraints

To meet physical activity (PA) recommendations, adolescents need to engage in PA during after-school hours as well as physical education (PE) classes. Community-based after-school programs provide an important venue for promoting after-school PA. Understanding program providers' perceptions of adolescents' PA is a critical yet neglected link in the design and delivery of such programs, especially among urban adolescents. Using semi-structured interviews with after-school program leaders (N=10) in NYC, this study examined leaders' perceptions of young adolescents' PA-related attitudes, behaviors, strengths, and barriers as well as the providers' own experiences promoting PA in their program participants. Providers reported perceiving primarily environmental barriers to PA for their participants, such as a lack of parks, safe places to be active, small living spaces, and limited school PE. Physical concerns such as weight issues and asthma were mentioned, but as secondary concerns. Adolescent attitudes, perceived by providers as resistant, apathetic, and lazy, were mentioned as significant barriers to promoting PA in after-school programs. Analysis of these barriers by both gender and social class revealed program providers' motivations to expose their participants to PA experiences that represent more middle-class PA (e.g. tennis and yoga) and a reluctance to embrace activities they perceived as “street” (basketball, hip-hop dance). Gender issues, in terms of perceived gender-appropriate activities and the use of co-ed versus gender-specific activities, were also prevalent. Results are discussed in light of how program-leaders' perceptions shape the context of PA for urban adolescents as well as the efforts of interventions designed to increase everyday PA.