Promotion of Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents from the School Setting

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Pediatric Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2025 | Viewed by 430

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Sport, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia (UCAM), Av. De los Jerónimos, 135, 30107 Murcia, Spain
Interests: promotion of physical activity; adolescent population; new technologies to promote physical activity; body composition; physical condition; psychological state
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Group Movement Sciences and Sport (MS&SPORT), Department of Physical Activity and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Interests: body composition; kinanthropometric measurement; health; adolescent population; physical condition; promotion of physical activity; mobile applications; maturity status
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Sport, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia (UCAM), Av. De los Jerónimos, 135, 30107 Murcia, Spain
Interests: maturity status; influence of maturation on adolescent development; body composition; kinanthropometric measurement; physical condition; gender differences

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The promotion of physical activity in children and adolescents has been crucial in recent decades, as it has shown beneficial effects on their health (body composition, physical fitness, or psychological state). Despite the available scientific evidence, few studies are based on the promotion of physical activity in the educational environment, which is the place where children and adolescents spend most of their time. For this reason, this Special Issue aims to collect cross-sectional and longitudinal scientific articles, as well as systematic reviews, showing how the promotion of physical activity in school settings can have a relevant impact on adolescent health. Some examples could be active recesses, the promotion of out-of-school physical activity, or awareness talks on healthy habits and how they impact health.

Dr. Adrián Mateo-Orcajada
Dr. Raquel Vaquero-Cristobal
Dr. Mario Demófilo Albaladejo-Saura
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • adolescents
  • children
  • educational field
  • promotion of physical activity
  • body composition
  • psychological state
  • physical fitness
  • school
  • out of school

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 689 KiB  
Article
Adolescents’ Assessment of Several Step Tracker Mobile Applications Based on Their Previous Level of Physical Activity
by Nerea Gómez-Cuesta, Adrián Mateo-Orcajada, Lourdes Meroño, Lucía Abenza-Cano and Raquel Vaquero-Cristóbal
Children 2025, 12(5), 554; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12050554 - 25 Apr 2025
Viewed by 203
Abstract
Background: Adolescents’ use of step tracker mobile applications (apps) could be influenced by their assessment of the mobile app used. Objectives: To analyze differences in the dropout rate, app assessment, and problematic mobile phone use based on prior physical activity levels and the [...] Read more.
Background: Adolescents’ use of step tracker mobile applications (apps) could be influenced by their assessment of the mobile app used. Objectives: To analyze differences in the dropout rate, app assessment, and problematic mobile phone use based on prior physical activity levels and the app used. Methods: A study with a quasi-experimental design was carried out with the participation of 240 adolescents, who were further categorized as either active or inactive. The adolescents carried out a 10-week intervention promoted as a part of the physical education curriculum, three days a week, in which they randomly used the Pokémon Go, MapMyWalk, Pacer, or Strava mobile apps after school for cardiorespiratory training. Results: The results showed a higher dropout rate from Pokémon Go in the group of inactive adolescents (p = 0.012). No differences were found in the assessment of apps based on the level of activity of the adolescents, neither overall nor when analyzing this question based on the app used (p > 0.05). As for problematic mobile phone use, only previously inactive adolescents assigned to the Pacer group significantly increased their final score after the intervention (p = 0.044), with no changes being identified in the other groups or apps (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the active adolescents showed a positive relationship between the volume of training and problematic mobile phone use (p = 0.023), specifically with the conflicting use of this device (p = 0.017). Conclusions: The inactive adolescents had a higher dropout rate when using Pokémon Go. There were no differences in app assessment between the active and the inactive participants. However, the active adolescents showed a link between their training volume and problematic mobile phone use. Full article
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