Female Adolescents’ and Their Parents’ Perception of Family Role in Forming Girls’ Physical Activity Behavior

Abstract

Family plays an important role in physical activity behaviors in children andadolescents although the procedure of this effect is not clear. This study wasdesigned to explore the family role in forming female adolescents’ physical activitybehavior. This study used a qualitative procedure and content analysis method. Tocollect data, semi–structured interviews were conducted with 25 participants (16female adolescents, 7 mothers, and 2 fathers). All interviews were recorded,transcribed and finally analyzed by qualitative content analysis method. Threemain themes emerged as the family role in forming female adolescents' physicalactivity behavior: starter (talent identification, interest arousal), strengthener(providing, companionship and encouraging), and maintainer (try to eliminatebarriers and try to acquire the agreement of the disagreed member in the family).This study provided a better understanding of how families influenced their girls'physical activity behavior. Identifying the role of family can help health authoritiesand physical education coaches to design more effective family–basedinterventions and also to identify more areas for further research.

Keywords

• physical activity
• adolescent girls
• family role
• content analysis