Research Article
Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Seven Arab Countries: A Cross-Cultural Study
Table 6
Significant differences (
value) between males and females for perceived barriers to physical activity among Arab adolescents (using chi-square test).
| Barriers | Algeria | Jordan | Kuwait | Libya | Palestine | Syria | UAE |
| (A) Personal barriers to physical activity | (1) Do not have motivation to do physical activity, exercise, or sport | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.049 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (2) Not enjoying physical activity, exercise, or sport | 0.002 | 0.000 | 0.040 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (3) Do not have the skills to do physical activity, exercise, or sport | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.799 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| (B) Social support barriers to physical activity | (1) No parents’ support to be physically active | 0.000 | 0.188 | 0.008 | 0.000 | 0.148 | 0.001 | 0.002 | (2) No friends’ support to be physically active | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.317 | 0.000 | 0.930 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (3) No teacher’ support to be physically active | 0.966 | 0.147 | 0.671 | 0.054 | 0.206 | 0.187 | 0.001 |
| (C) Environmental barriers to physical activity | (1) Do not have enough information about how to increase physical activity | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.328 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (2) Not having access to places to do physical activity, exercise, or sport | 0.003 | 0.048 | 0.699 | 0.090 | 0.653 | 0.002 | 0.000 | (3) Not being able to find physical activity facilities that are inexpensive | 0.024 | 0.539 | 0.071 | 0.247 | 0.055 | 0.782 | 0.014 | (4) Not having the time to be physically active | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.001 | 0.018 | 0.004 | 0.000 | 0.037 | (5) Feeling shy when practising exercise outdoor | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.060 | 0.000 | 0.001 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (6) The climate is not suitable for practising exercise | 0.000 | 0.037 | 0.054 | 0.000 | 0.377 | 0.002 | 0.000 | (7) Not being able to practise physical activity due to cultural factors | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | (8) Do not have enough money to enrol on physical activity club | 0.334 | 0.895 | 0.000 | 0.162 | 0.043 | 0.782 | 0.059 |
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