Reducing physical inactivity and promoting active living: From the voices of east african immigrant adolescent girls

Little is known about the beliefs, desires, and barriers related to physical activity of East African adolescent girls. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences with and beliefs about physical activity of East African adolescent female participants and suggestions for promoting active living. A phenomenological research design was employed, which included semi-structured interviews with East African adolescent girls (n = 19) 12-18 years of age. Deductive and inductive content analysis revealed that East African girls desired to be physically active and perceived a wide range of physical activities to be culturally relevant and desirable, yet faced an array of personal, social, environmental, and cultural barriers to active living. To help increase physical activity, many culturally relevant programming strategies that align closely with the characteristics of optimal positive youth development settings outlined by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine were offered by the adolescents in this study.