Abstract
The acquisition of physical activity habits during adolescence is fundamental to guarantee its adherence throughout life. However, these levels decrease during this stage, with women experimenting a more significant decrease. This paper aims to analyze if there are significant differences in the variables related to the intention to be physically active between men and women and if there is a moderating effect of gender on the variables that predict this intention. The sample is composed of 256 adolescents, aged between 16 and 19 years, 55.50% of whom are men, and 44.50% women. The results show that there are statistically significant differences (p < 0.05), with boys showing higher scores in the intention, athletic identity, and in the strength, condition, and attractiveness. About the predictive variables of the intention, the gender moderates the relationships between the physical attractiveness, condition and strength with the perceived behavioral control (pcfmale-pcfmale = 0.44; −0.48 p < 0.001; 0.27, p < 0.05, respectively), and between the subjective norm and the intention to be physically active (pcmale-female = 0.33, p < 0.01). These results highlight the importance of considering gender when designing specific policies for the promotion of physical-sports practice among adolescents to reduce the existing gender gap.
Highlights
Physical inactivity is a global pandemic [1], leading to the development of major diseases [2,3,4].Sedentary lifestyles in children and adolescents continue to be a global public health problem [5,6], with levels of physical activity declining as children move into adolescence [7]
Since the adolescent stage is a crucial period for people to establish themselves as regular practitioners of physical activity throughout their lives, or to abandon it completely [8,9], this is worrying
These differences were statistically significant in the case of all the dimensions of physical self-concept analyzed, in the athletic identity, and the intention to be physically active at the end of schooling
Summary
Physical inactivity is a global pandemic [1], leading to the development of major diseases [2,3,4]. Sedentary lifestyles in children and adolescents continue to be a global public health problem [5,6], with levels of physical activity declining as children move into adolescence [7]. Since the adolescent stage is a crucial period for people to establish themselves as regular practitioners of physical activity throughout their lives, or to abandon it completely [8,9], this is worrying. In addition to the fact that levels of physical inactivity during this stage of life remain very high worldwide, this is especially worrying in the case of girls [6]. Various researchers have shown that Spain is the country where they find the most significant differences in physical-sports practice concerning gender [10,11,12], with Spanish teenage girls being the least physically active in all of Europe [13,14,15].
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