Barriers to the Delivery of Children’s Physical Activity in California’s Central Valley

Abstract

The Niños Sanos, Familia Sana project is a multifaceted intervention to slow down the rate of BMI increase in young children in two Mexican-origin communities using a Community Based Participatory Research approach. This study focused on the physical activity component to examine where schoolteachers engage their students in physical activity, identify the barriers to class daily physical activity, and determine teacher’s perceptions regarding strategies to increase daily classroom physical activity. During the 2014-2015 school year, thirty-two preschool through third grade teachers from the intervention and control communities completed a Classroom Barriers to Physical Activity survey. Descriptive statistics revealed that the students in the treatment community tended to have physical activity on a playground (84.6%). A higher percentage of teachers in the control group (68.4%) reported they use the classroom for physical activity. Furthermore, teachers in the control group indicated that spending physical activity time in the classroom was a high barrier to daily physical activity. By understanding the barriers for delivering physical activity in elementary schools, we can gain a stronger understanding of the development and implementation of physical activity interventions for low-income rural communities.