Youth Advocacy for Increasing Physical Activity

Youth advocacy can be used for physical activity promotion and obesity prevention. Advocacy is a promising community-based intervention that has potential for environmental, social, and individual changes but has not been documented in a systematic, theory-driven way. PURPOSE: To test the factor structure of a newly developed youth advocacy measure and assess youth pre-post changes on physical activity. METHODS: Based on a model of youth advocacy, scales were developed to assess mediators, intervention processes, and proximal outcomes of youth advocacy for obesity prevention. Youth (baseline n=136) completed surveys before and after advocacy. With baseline data, we created subscales using confirmatory factor analysis. We then assessed youth changes on behavioral and attitudinal subscales including physical activity, before and after completing advocacy projects. RESULTS: Examples of advocacy groups’ targets for change were fixing broken or non-existent sidewalks around a school or in a neighborhood, removing litter and graffiti in local parks, and installing crosswalks and lighting outside a recreation center for improved active transportation. Sports/Physical Activity Enjoyment, Active Transportation, and Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations emerged as distinct factors from the survey that had acceptable factor loadings and intra-item correlations. After advocacy participation, Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations increased significantly from an average of 3.62 (SD: 1.87) to 4.0 (SD: 1.57) days per week, a 10.5% change from baseline (paired t(91)=2.28, p<.05). The other two physical activity-related subscales did not change significantly as a result of advocacy. CONCLUSION: The present study provides preliminary evidence of youth increases in physical activity following participation in an obesity prevention advocacy program. These positive initial finding should be replicated in larger samples. Youth advocacy can have meaningful impacts on and their communities by creating environmental changes that can make physical activity more accessible.