Perceptions toward Physical Activity and Their Associations with Achieving Sufficient Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents in Regional Thailand

Abstract

Internal and external factors can potentially affect physical activity in individual children and adolescents. Unfortunately, no study has been conducted to explore the association between these factors and physical activity among Thai children and adolescents who engage in physical activity following the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between three internal factors: knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy with two external factors: parental and environmental supports that encourage physical activity participation among children and adolescents. This study used a secondary data set from the Thailand Physical Activity Children Survey. This survey employed the use of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews for collecting information on physical activity participation. The participants included 2447 children aged 6–17 years. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were reported to reflect the strength of an association between internal and external factors and achieving the physical activity guidelines. The results showed that attitude toward physical activity and self-efficacy had an influence on achieving physical activity guidelines. The children and adolescents achieving physical activity guidelines had the confidence in themselves to do physical activity. They could spend their time doing physical activity after school, even in unfavorable conditions. Additionally, parental and environmental supports were necessary to encourage physical activity continuously. Furthermore, these results can be used for promoting a program to manage the factors related to physical activities and improve the levels of physical activity among children and adolescents

Keywords:

• Attitude
• children and adolescents
• physical activity
• self-efficacy

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Thai Health Promotion Foundation for the assistance and the Thailand Physical Activity Research Centre for its administrative support and coordination. The authors appreciate all the school principals and students who participated in this study, as well as the research assistant team who helped in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).