Social and physical environments of sports and exercise reported among high school students in the American Time Use Survey

Background: Studies of the built environment and physical activity largely measure the presence, availability of, and access and distance to resources (e.g., parks, health clubs). Unfortunately, this research approach provides limited information about the extent to which individuals actually use environmental features or visit particular settings. Time use data offer a novel research strategy to examine where and with whom physical activity occurs. The current study examined the social and physical contexts of physical activity among adolescents in the nationally-representative American Time Use Survey (years 2003-2006). Design/Methodology: The sample consisted of high school students (ages 15-18 years) reporting at least one bout of sports or exercise (N = 996). During the interview, participants reported where (e.g., outdoors, home, school, someone else's house, health club/gym, work) and with whom (e.g., alone, family, friends and acquaintances, coworkers) each bout occurred. Sample-weighted multinomial logistic regression analyses compared the proportion of bouts occurring in each environment by age, gender, and race/ethnicity controlling for family income, season, weekend/weekday, and time of day. Results: Compared with 15-year olds, a larger proportion of exercise bouts among 18-year olds occurred in a gym/health club (7% vs. 3%); and a smaller proportion occurred at home (13% vs. 23%), at someone else's house (4% vs. 12%), and at school (15% vs. 26%) (p's < .001). Girls were more likely to exercise with family (21% vs. 15%) and at a gym (5% vs. 2%), and less likely to exercise outdoors (15% vs. 23%) and with friends (43% vs. 51%) than boys (p's < .001). Exercising with friends was the most common among Non-Hispanic black (57% of bouts) and Asian (59% of bouts) students, and Native-American/Alaskan Natives were the most likely to exercise outdoors (37% of bouts). Conclusions: Information about the social and physical contexts of adolescents' sports and exercise can help guide the selection of future environmental targets for investigation and intervention.