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Abstract
Little is known about the beliefs, desires, and barriers related to physical activity of East African adolescent girls. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences with and beliefs about physical activity of East African adolescent female participants and suggestions for promoting active living. A phenomenological research design was employed, which included semi-structured interviews with East African adolescent girls (n = 19) 12–18 years of age. Deductive and inductive content analysis revealed that East African girls desired to be physically active and perceived a wide range of physical activities to be culturally relevant and desirable, yet faced an array of personal, social, environmental, and cultural barriers to active living. To help increase physical activity, many culturally relevant programming strategies that align closely with the characteristics of optimal positive youth development settings outlined by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine were offered by the adolescents in this study.
Notes
1. Many of the girls in this study were hesitant to fill out the demographic survey because they thought it may reveal their identity. Girls were asked which age range they fell into. It is important to note that a specific age in the East African culture may not be equivalent to the same age in US culture. Thus, the ages represented here are based on the East African girls’ perception of age within their culture.
2. According to Batalova et al. (Citation2008), immigrant children are defined as children born in the United States or abroad to at least one foreign-born parent.
3. The authors are not members of the East African community and were thus considered outsiders to the community. The community liaison was important for building trust within the East African community.