| Description |
Despite the heavily researched and well-known benefits of physical activity participation, as well as national programs and initiatives organized with the sole purpose to encourage and increase participation, a large disparity in adolescent physical activity participation still prevails across the United States. The inequity of physical activity participation among genders, races, and socioeconomic status is extremely clear and apparent in data collected across high schools in the U.S. This data predominantly conveys that there is a larger gap between different demographics' participations rates, with white male adolescents consistently demonstrating higher levels of physical activity participation than the levels indicated from individuals of any other race and gender. These statistics confirm the idea that privilege can exist even within individual physical activity participation starting in adolescence. In this thesis, the possible contributing factors and barriers, including but not limited to geographic location, socioeconomic status, accessibility to organized sports, psychological factors, strong societal norms, and increasing popularity of sedentary behavior, are examined in further detail to determine why the level of participation inequity is so high. |
