Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents

Professional Resource Guide

Introduction

This professional resource guide about physical activity and children and adolescents has been compiled by NCEMCH. It offers a selection of current, high-quality resources that analyze data, describe public health campaigns and other promotion programs, and report on research aimed at identifying promising strategies for improving physical activity levels within families, schools and after-school programs, child care and early childhood education settings, and communities. The professional resource guide also provides resources about physical activity for children and adolescents with special health care needs. The professional resource guide is aimed at health professionals, policymakers, child care providers, and community advocates. Separate briefs present resources for schools and families.

Overview

See Physical Activity and the Health of Young People, rev. ed. (2015) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This fact sheet highlights the benefits of regular physical activity and the long-term consequences of sedentary behavior for children and adolescents. It also presents participation rates in physical activity and in physical education classes for children and adolescents.

Resources for Professionals

Websites

• Association of State Public Health Nutritionists (ASPHN): Moving to the Future. Offers a collection of tools to develop successful community programs that promote healthy eating and physical activity. Includes instructions for conducting a community assessment, writing objectives, developing a plan, and implementing and evaluating programs.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Supports several initiatives and offers many resources to improve physical activity among children, adolescents, and adults that include
  
  Community Strategies. Resources for creating or modifying environments to make it easier for people to walk or bike, including tools and evidence-based health strategies for community planning, transportation, and land-use decisions, health impact assessment, joint use agreements, smart growth, and street transformations.
  
  Guide to Community Preventive Services: Physical Activity. Contains recommendations for population-based interventions to increase physical activity that are appropriate for communities and health care systems. Recommendations are focused on interventions in three areas: (1) campaigns and informational approaches to increasing physical activity, (2) behavioral and social approaches to increasing physical activity, and (3) environmental and policy approaches to increasing physical activity.
  
  Youth Tobacco Prevention. Offers materials to help coaches, school administrators, and state and local health departments promote the importance of choosing an active and tobacco-free lifestyle.
  
  Also see these additional CDC resources: Physical Activity Data and Statistics, Youth Physical Activity Guidelines Toolkit (2009), Adolescent and School Health Physical Activity Facts and Resources, BAM! Body and Mind, Physical Activity for Everyone, and Healthy Places.
  
  
• Girls on the Run (GOTR). Offers information about this nationwide program to promote physical activity and healthy behaviors among girls age 8 to 13.
  
  
• Healthy People 2020. Information about this national health-promotion and disease-prevention initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services. View the overview, objectives, and recommended interventions and resources for physical activity.
  
  
• National Physical Activity Plan. Presents a set of strategies and tactics that aim to increase physical activity in all segments of the U.S. population. Includes a list of publications related to the plan and contact information for state liaisons.
  
  
• National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). Offers position statements, journal article abstracts, and other resources about strength training and conditioning practices to improve athletic performance and fitness. Topics include performance enhancing drugs education.
  
  
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Presents science-based guidance to help Americans ages 6 and older improve their health through participation in appropriate physical activity. Recommendations are provided for groups such as children and adolescents, adults, older adults, pregnant and postpartum women, and individuals with special health care needs. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, are planned for release by late 2018.
  
  
• President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS). Contains resources for coaches, teachers, health and fitness professionals, and families about physical fitness. Resources include facts and statistics, research and reports, and information on programs such as the Presidential Youth Fitness Program and PALA+.
  
  
• SHAPE America: Society of Health and Physical Educators. Includes standards, guidelines, workshops, webinars, research, and other resources about physical education, physical activity, health education, dance, school health, and sport.
  
  
• Up2Us: Harnessing the Power of Sports. Presents program information, fact sheets, and policy briefs about using physical activity and sports as a tool for youth development. Up2Us is a national coalition of sports-based youth-development organizations.
  
  
• Women’s Sports Foundation. Offers program and grant information and reports, policy statements, and guides about sports and physical activity for girls and women. Resources and initiatives include
  
  GoGirlGo! Presents program information, curricula, guides, and Spanish-language materials about this effort to improve the health and wellness of girls ages 5-18 through physical activity.
  

Reports, Guides, and Other Resources

The MCH Digital Library has a collection of publications and other resources about physical activity in children and adolescents. To view them, search the library's catalog MCHLine® using the search form. Type "physical activity" in the keyword field and set publication date limits. Click on Search MCHLine to get your results. Add keywords to further refine your search, using terms such as adolescent, school, "early childhood".

Data and Statistics

• See MCH Digital Library professional resource guide, Maternal and Child Health Data and Statistics.
  

• See MCH Digital Library resource brief, Maternal and Child Health Literature and Research Databases and, in particular, Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH), Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Database, the Healthy Child Care America: Resource Library, and PubMed.
  

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System. Legislative and regulatory information about nutrition, obesity, and physical activity.
  
  
• Also see MCH Digital Library professional resource guide, Maternal and Child Health Programs Databases, and, in particular, the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps: What Works for Health and the Prevention Research Centers (PRC).
  

Electronic Newsletters and Online Discussion Groups

• University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center. Offers an electronic newsletter with information about research, training opportunities, and resources regarding physical activity and public health. Also offers a listserv to advance public health approaches to promoting physical activity by creating a national network of public health practitioners, researchers, and interested others.
  
  
• Also see the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD) News.
  

Resources for Families

• See MCH Digital Library family resource brief Physical Activity and Kids and Teens.
  

Resources for Schools

• See MCH Digital Library school resource brief Physical Activity and Physical Education.
  

Resources for Child Care and Early Education Programs

• See MCH Digital Library resource brief Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in Child Care and Early Education Programs.
  

Resources on Specific Aspects of Physical Activity

Community Design

• Active Living Research (ALR). Offers program information, research briefs, bibliographies, and other tools and resources that examine how environments and policies influence active living for children and their families.
  
  
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO): Smart Growth Toolkit. Describes the components of smart growth, including physical activity, and their importance to public health. Gives case studies from communities around the country and links to resources to help state and territorial health officials develop model practices for their own communities.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Healthy Places. Offers program and conference information, fact sheets, journal articles, a course curriculum, and links to a wealth of resources about the interaction between people and their environments. Topics include children’s health and the built environment and physical activity. Resources and initiatives include
  
  Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Presents links to a wealth of tools to evaluate the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented.
  
  Parks, Trails, and Health. Resources to promote use of parks and trails.
  
  Also see CDC’s Adolescent and School Health and the Guide to Community Preventive Services.
  
  
• Leadership for Healthy Communities: Active Living. Presents a collection of materials and tools for promoting physical activity, smart growth, and healthy community design among state and local government leaders. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program.
  
  
• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL): Healthy Community Design and Access to Healthy Food Legislation Database. Describes state legislation that seeks to increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity. Search for legislation by state, topic area (e.g., Bike/Pedestrian, Physical Activity), year, bill type, bill status, and bill number.
  
  
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. Presents a wealth of information and training tools about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility as it relates to increasing and improving spaces for safe walking and bicycling as a viable means of transportation and physical activity.
  

Special Health Care Needs

• National Center on Accessibility (NCA). Presents a webinar series, technical reports, educational materials, articles, product listings, and program information for consumers; health professionals; and the parks, recreation, and tourism industries about recreation-related accessibility issues for people with disabilities. NCA is part of Indiana University's School of Public Health.
  
  
• National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD). Offers resources about physical activity and disability that include an electronic newsletter and fact sheets about activities, games, camps, recreational pursuits, and sports that have been adapted to the needs of people with disabilities. NCPAD is located at the University of Alabama.
  
  
• Special Olympics International (SOI). Contains program and event information for year-round sports training and athletic competitions for children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual disabilities. Includes sports rules, program guides, coaching guides, articles, and a program locator. Special Olympics serves more than 2.5 million individuals with intellectual disabilities in more than 170 countries.
  
  
• Popper B, Irish S, Dworetzky B, Anderson B, Minihan P, Must A. 2008. Family Matters: Promoting Health and Wellness for Children with Special Heath Care Needs—Family Booklet. Albuquerque, NM: Family Voices.
  
  
• Also see the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and BAM! Body and Mind.
  

Related MCH Digital Library Resources

• Nutrition in Children and Adolescents professional resource guide, family resource brief, school resource brief
• Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents professional resource guide, family resource brief, school resource brief
  

Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents: Professional Resource Guide, 5th ed. (March 2010). (Updated: December 2016, March 2020).

Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., NCEMCH; Breanne C. Wilhite, B.S.
Reviewers: Olivia K. Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., NCEMCH.