Introduction

Alternative sports programs, providing activities beyond the conventional sport environments has been frequently utilized to reach inactive children, not at least in areas of low socioeconomic status. However, they have not been satisfactory examined whether they constitute constructive developmental environments from the perspective of the child. We suggest that programs need to be examined as a part of the ecological landscapes of childrens everyday life.

Methods

In order to grasp the complexity of physical activity behavior in children’s daily lives we applied a bioecological perspective [1,2]. Physically active and inactive children in two rural and two suburban areas (n=63, ages 8-13) participated in 15 focus-group interviews. Inactive children (n=19) also participated in five separate focus-group interviews. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis informed by bioecological theory emphasizing interactions with the multidimensional environment. Results Findings reveal that the landscape in which children engage in daily PA consists of interconnected relations within the children’s microsystems such as peer relations, child–adult relations, and child–environment relations and how these interact with both children’s personal characteristics and factors at the mesolevel, exolevel, and macrolevel. This multileveled ecological landscape creates possibilities as well as barriers for children to engage in PA-related proximal processes. The everyday settings, such as organized activities provided by alternative sport programs, was considered as non-relevant to inactive children since participation in activities was not supported on all ecological levels. For instance, on a sociocultural level, the environments in which children were supposed to be physically active was marked by a conventional sports norm based on ideas that ‘real’ PA is the kind performed within organized sports.

Discussion

Applying the holistic perspective of bioecological theory makes visible that participation in alternative sports program activities requires supporting ecological landscapes. In order to increase physical activity levels among inactive children, programs need to be designed to fit the ecological landscapes of, not only active children, but inactive children as well. This may be achieved if social institutions cooperate and reflect on the movement cultures prevailing in these respective areas. For instance, they must accept that physical activities that inactive children may interact with might be different from the conventional ones.

1. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making Human Beings Human: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

2. Vélez-Agosto, N. M., Soto-Crespo, J. G., Vizcarrondo-Oppenheimer, M., Vega-Molina, S., & García Coll, C. (2017). Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory Revision: Moving Culture From the Macro Into the Micro. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12, 900–910