3.1. Several factors that influence young people specifically

Project MOVE BEYOND No. ID 2019-1-NL01-KA204-060534

Research has shown that factors influencing physical activity can be divided into five categories:

1. demographic/biological factors 2. psychological, cognitive, and emotional factors 3. behavioural attributes/skills 4. social/cultural factors

5. physical environment factors.

The first three can be broadly defined as personal factors. It is commonly a combination of these personal, social, and environmental factors that determines physical-activity behaviour. Environmental barriers are related to costs, accessibility of facilities, opportunities, aesthetic attributes, and safety of environments. Personal barriers relate to lacking confidence and competence in core skills and possible self-image problems. Social barriers relate to lack of time, other priorities, family commitments, and lack of exercise partners. (Schipper,2019)

3.1. Several factors that influence young people specifically

Young people’s access to physical activity can be limited by a lack of money in the family. Taking part in activities organised by sports clubs might be too expensive. Many sports require a lot of money to be paid for equipment, travel costs and insurance. There is also a skill-based barrier in many sports. There is a clear lack of low threshold sports groups for young people with lower physical skills and the ones that exist might not be communicated properly to the groups that would benefit most from such groups.

Even if there are such groups, there might still be problems. A sports setting can be difficult based on social factors: youare required to make a contact and present yourself in a busy social setting where you do not necessarily know other people. This can be especially difficult for people who feel anxiety in such situations. A lot ofphysical activity is done in groups, which can lead to anonymity in said group. This can be beneficial for some but can be troublesome for those who require more one-on-one style guidance. (Schipper,2019)

One more reason for some young people’s lack of physical activity is their poor experience of physical education classes in schools. Young people who do less well in classes are often bullied. This experience can also weaken the motivation for many young people to do physical exercise at a later age.

Such experiences can also weaken the general acceptance of the young person’s own body, as during adolescence the individual’s perception and self image take shape. If a young person has physiological problems with coordination, motor skills, or vision, the experiences of failure can be enormous. This can lead to feelings of shame, anxiety, and insecurity. In their bachelor’ sthesis Exercise as a Method of Preventing Young People from Exclusion, Kristine Luciano and Petri Puumalainen (2015) describe that exercise affects

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