Getting enough exercise and playing sports are essential for good health. Yet worldwide, approximately 80% of adolescents are not sufficiently active and more than a third do not participate in team sports. And the older young people get, the more their physical activity declines. Scientists already knew that factors such as motivation and how well someone feels they perform in a sport play a role.
However, little is known about environmental factors, such as the influence of parents and friends, or about the relationship between all these factors. Spruijtenburg has been researching this for the past five years as a PhD student at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University. In addition to a literature study, she followed secondary school pupils for three years to gain more insight into their motives for participating or not participating in sports and exercise. “We administered questionnaires, conducted physical tests and measured the BMI of the young people.”
Complex field
Based on the literature study, a complex field of factors emerged that are sometimes related and sometimes completely unrelated. Spruijtenburg explains: “There are no factors that are consistently related to changes in exercise behaviour – from walking or cycling to school to playing sports at a club or gym. We see a lot of individual differences.”
Take, for example, someone who is highly motivated to exercise. In that case, it makes little difference whether parents, friends and classmates encourage them. Whereas people from the environment can be a great source of support for someone who has difficulty motivating themselves.'
In addition, the researchers suspect that it is difficult to find consistent factors because one type of physical activity, such as walking or cycling more often, is influenced by different factors than other types of physical activity, such as playing sports at a club.
In the multi-year study among secondary school pupils, the researchers did find factors that were related to how sporty someone is, but not specifically to whether they participate in sports more or less. “Think of factors such as social support, motivation and perceived competence.”
Trained trainers
Gaining more insight into the factors that contribute to physical activity and participation in sports also helps to develop more targeted methods to encourage young people to participate in sports and exercise. Based on this study, Spruijtenburg cannot yet say what these interventions might be. “But because of the large individual differences between young people, we do know that a uniform approach is not the best approach.”
Spruijtenburg and her colleagues are also convinced that skilled teachers and trainers are essential for a tailored approach to succeed. “It’s great when parents offer to train their children’s team, but ideally you want someone who is trained for the job and therefore able to identify the needs of different children and respond to them.”
Spruijtenburg believes that additional research is important in order to develop tailored interventions. “There is still a lot to discover about what motivates young people to participate in sports or to quit.” Scientists usually distinguish five main motives: enjoyment, competence (wanting to improve), social interaction, appearance and fitness.
“It is worthwhile to investigate how these motives change during different stages of life and to develop interventions based on these insights.” Spruijtenburg is leaving that research to other scientists. She will be working as a health advisor to municipalities and organisations, such as the GGD (Municipal Health Service), to help improve people's health behaviour. Of course, she will continue to follow developments in her field. “I hope that new insights will continue to emerge on how to keep young people active. A healthy, active lifestyle is important for everyone, but the greatest gains can be made among young people.”