EXERCISE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BARRIERS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

Abstract

Little is known about barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from participating in exercise and physical activities (PA). This is especially true for children and youth with disabilities. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate exercise and PA barriers of children and youth with disabilities using a 46-item exercise and PA barrier instrument, which had been validated using adults with disabilities. METHOD: The instrument was administered to 145 children and youth (117 boys and 28 girls, ranging from 12 to 19 yrs. old), who participated in a wheelchair basketball summer camp. Using the Rasch rating scale model, an advanced measurement model, and the collected data, the parameters of barrier severity and children and youth exercise perseverance were estimated. Model-data fit was determined by Infit and Outfit statistics (> 7 and ≤ 1.3). RESULT: Overall, the model fit the data well, except for six items. These items were eliminated from the final estimations. It was found that the five most difficult barriers that children and youth with disabilities faced were “Lack of time” (logits = 1.45), “Pain or discomfort” (.95), “Weather” (.65), “People's misconception of my physical condition/ability” (.59), and “Lack of transportation to get to place to exercise” (.58). The five least difficult barriers were “Lack of family support” (−1.44), followed by “Inconvenience of perspiration and/or combing” (−1.25), “Fear of injury” (−.94), “Exercise intensity required to improve health is too high to me” (−.86) and “Unpleasant experience related to exercise in the past” (−.75). The overall mean of exercise perseverance of this group of children and youth was 1.79 (SD = 1.22) in logits. Exercise perseverance increased as children and youth get old (M ± SD in logits: < 14 yrs. = 1.31 ± .98; 14 - 17 yrs. = 1.58 ± 1.14; ± 18 yrs. = 2.2 ± 1.38), but there was no gender difference (Boys = 1.78 ± 1.25; Girls = 1.86 ± 1.34). CONCLUSION: Like adults with disabilities, “lack of time,” “weather,” and “lack of transportation” are major barriers that prevented children and youth from participating in exercise and PA. Removing these barriers should be a part of future exercise and PA interventions targeting to this population.