Abstract
Physical activity (PA) and sports are efficient ways to promote the young generation’s physical and mental health and development. This study expected to demonstrate the complexity of correlates associated with children’s and adolescents’ non-organized PA participation. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA), a systematic review and meta-analysis were applied. Seven electronic databases were systematically searched to identify eligible articles based on a series of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The internal validity of the systematic reviews thus identified was evaluated using a validated quality instrument. Calculations were produced in SPSS 27.0 and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.3. Thirty-nine eligible studies (N = 324,953) with moderate to high quality were included. No potential publication bias was detected using statistical analyses. The meta-analysis revealed that the overall ecological factors correlated positively with children and adolescents’ PA; the meta-analytic average of the correlations was (′r = 0.32, p < 0.001). Results from subgroup analysis indicated that theory-based influence factors achieved moderate effect with boys (′r = 0.37, p < 0.001) and girls (′r = 0.32, p < 0.001) in PA participation. Interestingly, higher correlations were found between ecological factors and twins’ PA participation (′r = 0.61, p = 0.001). Further, individual (′r = 0.32, p < 0.001), macro-, and chronosystems factors (′r = 0.50, p < 0.001) appeared slightly more influential than microsystems factors (′r = 0.28, p < 0.001) on children and adolescents’ PA participation. Although findings from the included studies covered were to some extent heterogeneous, it is possible to identify consistent correlates of PA in children and adolescents. The results supported that PA is a complex and multi-dimensional behavior, which is determined by numerous biological, psychological, sociocultural, and environmental factors. Future studies that focus on the integration effect of macrosystem and chronosystem environmental factors, and apply longitudinal designs and objective measurements are encouraged to further unfold the complexity of the ecological system and its implications in promoting children and adolescents’ PA participation.
Highlights
IntroductionPhysical activity (PA) plays a critical role in children and adolescents’ lifelong development [1,2,3,4]
The current study provided evidence that children and adolescents’ non-organized Physical activity (PA) participation is significantly correlated with multiple layers of ecological factors
The likelihood of participating in non-organized PA in children and adolescents was significantly predicted by sex, age, enjoyment of PA, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, socioeconomic status, parental support, peer influences, and proximal environments
Summary
Physical activity (PA) plays a critical role in children and adolescents’ lifelong development [1,2,3,4]. Participation in PA decreases with age [5,6,7]; the decline is greater in girls than boys [8], and computers and social media have decreased the need and desire for children to move and play [9]. The issue of physical inactivity is even more concerning due to the influence of remote learning settings under the global pandemic [10]. The challenges associated with getting kids active every day should be met with age-appropriate physical activities, enthusiastic leadership, and support from family and community [11].
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