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Correlates of physical activity in youth:

a review of quantitative systematic
reviews
a a b
Stuart J.H. Biddle , Andrew J. Atkin , Nick Cavill & Charlie
c
Foster
a
School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough
University, Loughborough, UK
b
Cavill Associates, Stockport, UK
c
Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Version of record first published: 13 Apr 2011.

To cite this article: Stuart J.H. Biddle , Andrew J. Atkin , Nick Cavill & Charlie Foster (2011):
Correlates of physical activity in youth: a review of quantitative systematic reviews, International
Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4:1, 25-49

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 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2011, 25
49

Correlates of physical activity in youth: a review of quantitative

systematic reviews
Stuart J.H. Biddlea*, Andrew J. Atkina, Nick Cavillb and Charlie Fosterc
a
School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK;
b
Cavill Associates, Stockport, UK; cInstitute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford,
UK
(Received 7 July 2010; final version received 10 December 2010)
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To increase young people’s physical activity (PA) levels it is important to

understand the correlates of PA in children and adolescents. We sought to identify
factors associated with children’s and adolescents’ PA by reviewing systematic
quantitative reviews of non-intervention research. Systematic reviews examining
associations between quantitatively measured variables and PA in young people
(B 19 years) from 2000
2010 were identified using electronic and manual
searches. Nine systematic reviews were identified. Demographic/biological
correlates of PA were age and gender. Psychological correlates of PA were
positive motivation, positive body image and the existence of barriers to PA.
Behavioural correlates of PA were previous PA, sport participation, smoking, and
sedentary behaviour. Social/cultural correlates of PA were parental influence and
social support, and environmental correlates of PA were access to facilities,
distance from home to school, time spent outside, and local crime. The evidence is
suggestive of a number of different types of correlates of PA for children and
adolescents. Beyond age and gender, though, most are likely to have only small or
small-to-moderate effects in isolation and may work best in interaction with other
influences. Psychologists must look to social, organisational and community-level
correlates in addition to individual correlates.
Keywords: young people; physical activity; systematic review; correlates

Introduction
Regular participation in physical activity has long been recognised as essential to
normal development in young people (American College of Sports Medicine, 1988),
and in recent years, promotion of physical activity in children and adolescents has
become a recognised goal of public health authorities (Department of Health, 2004,
2009; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
Experts from the UK suggest that young people should achieve a total of at least
60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each day, yet recent data for
England (Health Survey for England, 2009) suggests that only 32% of boys and 24%
of girls aged 2
15 years achieved the recommended levels of physical activity, and
these data may be over-estimates relative to objective measures (Riddoch et al.,
2007). The large proportion of young people who are not achieving the recom-
mended guidelines demonstrates the need to increase young people’s physical activity

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 1750-984X print/ISSN 1750-9858 online
# 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/1750984X.2010.548528
http://www.informaworld.com
 26 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

levels. To do this most effectively, it is important to understand the correlates of

physical activity in children and adolescents.
Research on correlates is best seen in the context of the ‘behavioural
epidemiology’ framework (Sallis & Owen, 1999). This framework proposes five
phases in the research process concerning physical activity and health. It is first
necessary to assess the behaviour in question (physical activity) and then establish
whether there are links between physical activity and health in young people. The
framework also proposes that before interventions can be planned, the key variables
that are correlated with the behaviour need to be identified. This is because a
behaviour such as physical activity is not changed by the intervention per se, but by a
change in some personal, social or environmental variable
that is, a change in
a ‘correlate’. This is based on the so-called ‘mediating variable framework’ whereby it
is a variable, or set of variables, that need changing in order for behaviour to change
(Baranowski, Anderson, & Carmack, 1998). Such variables are ‘mediators’ of change
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(Baron & Kenny, 1986).

Correlates may vary by the degree to which they can be modified and thus
whether they act primarily as a moderator or mediator. Mediators can be defined as
‘intervening causal variables that are necessary to complete a cause-effect pathway
between an intervention and physical activity’ (Bauman, Sallis, Dzewaltowski, &
Owen, 2002). For example, if increasing parental support for child physical activity
brings about changes in behaviour (i.e., greater physical activity), parental support is
acting as a mediator of behaviour change (Baranowski et al., 1998; Baranowski &
Jago, 2005; Baron & Kenny, 1986). In the case of physical activity interventions, a
mediator is a variable in the causal path that is specifically targeted to help promote
changes in physical activity. Sometimes the strength of the relationship between a
programme and outcome varies according to another factor. This factor, or variable,
is known as a moderator (Bauman et al., 2002). For example, reducing time spent
playing computer games may increase physical activity for boys but not girls. If so,
gender is seen to act as a moderating variable.
Referring back to the behavioural epidemiological framework, having established
likely correlates of physical activity, these might be used as moderators or mediators
in physical activity behaviour change interventions. Typically, these are controlled
interventions prior to being rolled out into ‘real-world’ practices with good external
validity. Although it seems logical to expect correlates to inform interventions, and
interventions to precede translation into practice, equally these subsequent phases
can inform those that precede it. For example, information on correlates could
emerge from an intervention, with subsequent modification to knowledge about
correlates of physical activity.
The present review aims to identify factors associated with children’s and
adolescents’ physical activity by reviewing systematic quantitative reviews of non-
intervention research relating to participation in physical activity by young people.
Although there are systematic reviews in the literature, many address slightly
different parameters, or adopt different methods. It is important, therefore, to try to
make sense of the extant review literature by pulling together findings from across all
systematic reviews. A ‘review of reviews’ is accepted practice in the medical and
health behaviour literatures (Hillsdon, Foster, Naidoo, & Crombie, 2004), although
has yet to be adopted, to our knowledge, in sport and exercise psychology.
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 27

Methods
Search strategy
An electronic search was undertaken to identify published research addressing factors
associated with all types of physical activity in children and adolescents. Searches were
conducted using the following databases: PubMed, SPORTDiscus, PsychINFO, Web
of Science, Medline, ERIC, ArticleFirst, Sociological Abstracts, Applied Social
Sciences Index and Abstracts, Embase, Cinahl, TRIS on line, Global Health,
Geobase, Cochrane Library, CSA Environmental Sciences, Cambridge Scientific
Abstracts, ISI Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index. Search terms
included, but were not limited to: ‘physical activity’, ‘exercise’, ‘sport’, ‘play’, ‘walk’,
‘bicycle’, ‘bike’, ‘travel mode’, ‘trip’, ‘active travel’, ‘children’, ‘adolescent’, ‘young
people’, ‘youth’, ‘pre-school’, ‘correlates’, ‘determinants’, ‘associated with’, ‘review’,
‘summary’, and ‘research synthesis’. In view of the fact that a considerable quantity of
evidence has been produced on the topic of correlates of physical activity in young
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people, the search was restricted to review level evidence that had been conducted
using systematic methodologies. Searches were limited to articles published in the
English language from 2000 to 2010. The first systematic review of this area was by
Sallis, Prochaska, and Taylor in 2000, hence 2000 was selected as the start of our
search dates. Figure 1 shows the flow chart for paper selection.
In addition to electronic searching, and as a check, manual searches of key peer
reviewed journals were conducted. To locate reviews within the ‘grey’ literature, four

Electronic Databases 23,380 Papers excluded on the basis of title and

Expert Organisations 335 abstract (inc. duplicates) 23,887
Personal Files 16
Reference Lists 240

Total 23,971

Reason for exclusion:

Inappropriate study design 50

Papers included on the basis of title and Qualitative 8
abstract 84 Participants >18 yrs 15

Studies meeting initial criteria 11 Reason for exclusion:

Review of only one correlate 1
Non-systematic review 1

Selected for in-depth analysis 9

Figure 1. Flow diagram of papers.

 28 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

UK and US organisations involved in the commissioning, undertaking or catalo-

guing of research on physical activity and young people were contacted by email or
their websites were visited. Furthermore, the reference lists of available primary
research articles, reviews or book chapters, as well as files of members of the research
team, were examined to identify further reviews of interest.

Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria were used in two stages, first to locate all relevant reviews and,
second, to highlight reviews that would be subjected to in-depth analysis. For
inclusion in stage one, studies were required to (i) include children and adolescents
(B 19 years old); (ii) be a review paper published in a peer reviewed journal; and (iii)
review associations between quantitatively measured variables and physical activity.
For inclusion in stage two, studies were required to employ a systematic search
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strategy.

Data extraction
Data from the included reviews were extracted onto a standardised form developed
for this review. The following data were extracted: author, date, years the review
covered in their search, search terms used, databases used in their search, sample
characteristics, correlates studied and the number of studies included in the review.
This information is summarised in Table 1.

Strength of evidence
Criteria were used to evaluate the strength of evidence where possible. Verbal
descriptors are provided of ‘small’, ‘moderate’ and ‘large’ by generally adopting the
conventions of Cohen’s strength of effect for correlations (0.10
0.29  small; 0.30

0.49  moderate; / 0.5  large) (Cohen, 1988).

Quality of evidence
Five criteria were used to assess the quality of the reviews (Shea, Dube, & Moher,
2001): (1) were search methods reported?; (2) was the search reasonably compre-
hensive? (i.e., several databases were used for searching); (3) were inclusion criteria
specified?; (4) were the primary studies assessed for validity?; and (5) were the
conclusions drawn supported by the data? This was undertaken by two of the
authors and disagreements resolved through discussion.

Results
Nine papers met entry criteria and were selected for in-depth analysis (Biddle,
Whitehead, O’Donovan, & Nevill, 2005; Davison & Lawson, 2006; Edwardson &
Gorely, 2010; Ferreira et al., 2007; Gustafson & Rhodes, 2006; Hinkley, Crawford,
Salmon, Okely, & Hesketh, 2008; Pugliese & Tinsley, 2007; Sallis, Prochaska, &
Taylor, 2000; van der Horst, Chin A. Paw, Twisk, & Van Mechelen, 2007). Based on
the criteria for assessing quality, all reviews satisfied criteria 2, 3 and 5. Reviews only
 Table 1. Key characteristics of reviews.

No. of
Sample studies
Study Years covered Search terms describeda Databases used characteristics Correlates studied reviewed
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Sallis et al. 1970
1998 Not described MEDLINE, Boys and girls Demographic/biological 108
(2000) PsychInfo 3
18 years Psychological/cognitive/
emotional
Behavioural Social/

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 29

cultural Physical
environment
Biddle et al. 1999
2005 Physical activity, sport, youth, MEDLINE, Girls only Demographic/biological 51
(2005) adolescent/adolescence, Web of Science, 10
18 years Psychological/cognitive/
teenage, girl, female, gender, PsychInfo, emotional
correlates, determinants, SPORTDiscus Behavioural Social/
motivation, adherence, cultural Physical
barriers, enjoyment, environment
importance, support
Davison & 1990
2006 Physical activity, exercise, PubMed, Boys and girls Environmental 33
Lawson recreation, sport, walk/ PsychInfo, 3
18 years (recreational
(2006) walking, cycle/cycling, EBSCO, infrastructure, transport
transport, active commuting, CINAHL, infrastructure, local
environment, environmental TRANSPORT conditions)
determinants, physical
environmental, built
environment, perceived
environment, design, urban
design, context, facilities,
neighbourhood, park,
playground, situational factors,
safety, crime, weather
 30 S.J.H. Biddle et al.
Table 1 (Continued )

No. of
Sample studies
Study Years covered Search terms describeda Databases used characteristics Correlates studied reviewed
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Ferreira 1980
2004 Physical activity, physical MEDLINE, Boys and girls Environmental (home, 150
et al. active lifestyle, vigorous PsychInfo, 3
18 years school, neighbourhood,
(2006) activity, leisure activities, Web of Science, region/country)
recreation, exercise, sport(s), EMBASE, Some demographic and
motor activity, physical SPORTDiscus familial variables
education, walking, running, included
(bi)cycling, commuting,
determinants, correlates,
influences, associations,
environment, physical
environment, built
environment, psychosocial
determinants, social
environment, social norms,
socio-economic status, socio-
cultural environment, parents,
peers, neighbourhood, school,
facilities, recreation,
equipment, safety
Gustafson & Not described Parental influence, influences MEDLINE, Boys and girls Parental 34
Rhodes (reviewed on child physical activity, PsychInfo, 3
18 years Some demographic
(2006) studies parent child, physical activity, PubMed, variables included
spanned 1985
exercise Academic Search
2003) Elite,
SPORTDiscus
 Table 1 (Continued )

No. of
Sample studies
Study Years covered Search terms describeda Databases used characteristics Correlates studied reviewed
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van der 1999
Jan 2005 Activities and habits, child PubMed, Boys and girls Demographic/biological 57
Horst behaviour, adolescent PsychInfo 4
18 years Psychological
et al. behaviour, health behaviour, Behavioural Social
(2007) social behaviour, mental Physical (environment)
processes, health knowledge,

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 31

attitudes, practice, attitude to
health, exercise/psychology,
social environment, self-
efficacy, parenting, lifestyle
Pugliese & 1960
2005 Children, adolescent, parental ERIC, Boys and girls Parental socialisation 30
Tinsley influence, determinant, PsychLit, 2
18 years
(2007) predictors, physical activity PubMED, Web of Science
Hinkley 1980
March Physical activity, exercise, MEDLINE, PubMed, Boys and girls Demographic/biological 24
et al. 2007 health behaviour, play, physical INAHL, SPORTDiscus, 2
5 years Psychological/cognitive/
(2008) inactivity, physical fitness-in PsychINFO, Health Source emotional
conjunction with child, (nursing/ academic edition), Behavioural Social/
kindergarten, childcare, Sociological Abstracts cultural
preschool Physical environment
Edwardson Up to Physical activity, exercise, SPORTDiscus, Article First, Boys and girls Parental correlates of PA 96
& Gorely September children, adolescents, parents, Web of Science, Zetoc, 6
18 years for children and
(2010) 2009 parental influence, support, Applied Social Sciences adolescents; cross-
beliefs, attitudes, transport, Index, MEDLINE, Biological sectional and
correlates, determinants sciences, ERIC, PsychINFO, longitudinal studies
Sociological Abstracts,
Physical Education Index
Note: aOften authors would list example search terms only.
 32 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

partially assessed the validity of studies. Reviews by Biddle et al., Davison and
Lawson, Edwardson and Gorely, Ferreira et al., Hinkley et al., Pugliese and Tinsley,
and van der Horst et al. satisfied criterion 1, with the reviews by Sallis et al. and
Gustafson and Rhodes only partially satisfying this criterion.
Table 2 presents the factors that are associated with physical activity separately by
children and adolescents where available or appropriate. Results of the current review
are presented under the five categories of demographic and biological, psychological,
behavioural, social/cultural, and environmental correlates.

Demographic and biological correlates

Six of the reviews provided findings on demographic/biological correlates, with
Davison and Lawson’s (2006) review not included. Correlates typically studied
include markers of socio-economic status, as well as ethnicity, age, and gender.
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Biological correlates usually include body mass index or weight status, and
sometimes physical fitness. Such variables are usually studied as potential mod-
erators of behaviour.

Age and gender

A decline in activity with age during adolescence is evident, with Biddle et al.
reporting this as ‘small-to-moderate’ for adolescent girls across 11 studies. Such a
trend is less evident for pre-adolescent children with Sallis et al. reporting an
indeterminate association from 19 studies. Similarly, very young children (pre-school;
usually aged 2
5 years) do not show age effects (Hinkley et al., 2008). Data from the
reviews confirm that boys are more active than girls. For example, this trend was
confirmed by Sallis et al. in 81% of 31 studies with children and 96% of 28 studies
with adolescents, and by Hinkley et al. in 80% of studies with pre-schoolers.

Ethnic origin
Ethnicity was addressed in the reviews by Sallis et al., Biddle et al., van der Horst
et al., Hinkley et al., and Gustafson and Rhodes, although the latter was in relation
to parent-child physical activity behaviours. Reviews suggest that ‘white Caucasians’
(also described as ‘Euro American’ by Sallis et al., and with most studies from the
US) are more likely to be active, at least for adolescents, than other ethnic groups.
This relationship was reported as ‘small’ by Biddle et al. across seven samples of
adolescent girls. Sallis et al. showed that ethnicity had an inconsistent relationship
with physical activity in children across 11 studies, although the update by van der
Horst et al. suggested no association. For pre-school children, Hinkley et al. reported
no association with ethnicity.

Socio-economic status
Socio-economic status (SES) was analysed in the reviews by Sallis et al., Biddle et al.,
Ferreira et al., van der Horst et al., Hinkley et al., and Gustafson and Rhodes,
although the latter was in relation only to parent-child physical activity behaviours.
Sallis et al. reported no association with SES for children (13 studies) or adolescents
 Table 2. Factors associated with physical activity in pre-school children, children and adolescents.

Correlate Type

Psychological/
Study Demographic/Biological Cognitive/Emotional Behavioural Social/Cultural Environmental
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Sallis et al. (2000) CHILDREN “ PA intention () “ Previous PA () None “ Access to facilities ()
“ Sex (male) () “ PA preference () “ Healthy diet () “ Time outdoors ()
“ Parent overweight “ General barriers (-)
()

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 33

ADOLESCENTS “ PA intention () “ Previous PA () “ Sibling PA () “ Opportunities to
“ Sex (male) () “ Achievement “ Sensation seeking “ Direct parental help () exercise ()
“ Ethnicity orientation () () “ Parental support ()
(Euro-Am) () “ Perceived Community sports “ Support from significant
“ Age ( ) competence () () others ()
“ Depression () “ Sedentary after
school ()
“ Sedentary at
weekend ( )
Biddle et al. (2005) ADOLESCENT
GIRLS “ Enjoyment () “ Smoking ( ) “ Family and parental None
“ Sex (female) ( ) “ Perceived “ Participation in support ()
“ Increased BMI ( ) competence () organised sport “ Father’s PA ()
“ Ethnicity (white) “ Self-efficacy () ()
() “ Perceived
“ Age ( ) attractiveness ()
“ Physical self-worth
()
“ Appearance
importance ()
 34 S.J.H. Biddle et al.
Table 2 (Continued )

Correlate Type

Psychological/
Study Demographic/Biological Cognitive/Emotional Behavioural Social/Cultural Environmental
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“ Family income () “ Perceived barriers

( )
“ Lack of time barrier
( )
Ferreira et al. CHILDREN
(2006) None N/A N/A “ Father’s PA () “ Time outdoors ()
“ School PA policy ()
ADOLESCENTS “ Support from significant “ Non-vocational school
“ Mother’s education others () ()
level () “ Neighbourhood crime
“ Family income () incidence ()
Davison & N/A N/A N/A N/A “ Availability of
Lawson (2006) recreation facilities
()
“ Distance to school
()
“ Equipment/play
structures in school
()
“ Area deprivation and
crime ()
“ Presence and
condition
of footpaths ()
 Table 2 (Continued )

Correlate Type

Psychological/
Study Demographic/Biological Cognitive/Emotional Behavioural Social/Cultural Environmental
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Gustafson & “ Socio-economic N/A N/A “ Parental support () N/A

Rhodes (2006) status () “ No. of active parents ()
“ Mother PA ()
(daughters only)

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 35

“ Father PA () (sons only)
Van der Horst CHILDREN
et al. (2007) “ Sex (male) () “ Self-efficacy () None “ Parental support () None

ADOLESCENTS
“ Sex (male) () “ Self-efficacy () “ PE/school “ Friend support ()
“ Parent education “ Goal orientation/ sports () “ Family influences ()
() motivation ()
Attitude ()
Pugliese & Tinsley N/A N/A N/A “ Parental encouragement N/A
(2007) ()
“ Parental modelling ()
“ Parental instrumental ()
“ Overall parental
behaviour ()
Hinkley et al. PRE-SCHOOL
(2008) CHILDREN
“ Sex (male) () Too few to draw None “ Parental PA () “ Time in play spaces or
conclusions “ Parental interaction with outdoors ()
child in PA () “ Specific pre-school
attended
 36 S.J.H. Biddle et al.
Table 2 (Continued )

Correlate Type

Psychological/
Study Demographic/Biological Cognitive/Emotional Behavioural Social/Cultural Environmental
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Edwardson & CHILDREN (PA

Gorely (2010) intensity) “ Mother modelling
(MVPA) ()
“ Parental involvement
CHILDREN (PA type) (Overall PA; Organised
PA) ()
“ Father modelling (Leisure
PA) ()
“ Overall support
(Organised PA) ()
ADOLESCENTS (PA “ Parental modelling
intensity) (MVPA) ()
“ Parental support (MVPA;
VPA) ()
 Table 2 (Continued )

Correlate Type

Psychological/
Study Demographic/Biological Cognitive/Emotional Behavioural Social/Cultural Environmental
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“ Parental attitudes/beliefs
(MVPA) ()
“ Transport (MVPA) ()
“ Father PA (VPA; Very

International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 37

ADOLESCENTS (PA hard PA) ()
type) “ Parental support (VPA)
()
“ Mother PA (Overall PA)
()
“ Father PA (Overall PA
()
“ Parental support (Overall
PA ()
“ Parental attitudes/beliefs
(Overall PA) ()
“ Transport (Leisure PA)
()
“ Parental encouragement
(PA frequency) ()
Notes: ‘PA’  physical activity; ‘Euro-Am’  European-American; ‘MVPA’  moderate-to-vigorous PA; ‘VPA’  vigorous PA;
‘’  negative association; ‘  ’  positive association.
 38 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

(nine studies), findings largely confirmed by van der Horst et al.’s update as well as
with pre-school children in Hinkley et al.’s review.
Ferreira et al. reported no association for SES in adolescents, parental education
in children and adolescents, and father’s occupation in children. However, they did
report a positive association between physical activity and family income in six of 10
studies, and mother’s educational level for adolescents (three of five studies).
Moreover, Biddle et al. reported a moderately strong positive association between
activity for adolescent girls and family income (but from only three studies), and a
mixed picture concerning parental education across four studies. Whether children
are in single parent families or not appears unrelated to their levels of physical
activity. For example, Ferreira et al. showed no association in 19 of 24 studies.

Body mass index

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Biological correlates were reviewed by Sallis et al., Biddle et al., van der Horst et al.,
and Hinkley et al. The most consistently studied biological correlate is body mass
index (BMI). This was reported as inconsistently associated with activity for both
children and adolescents by Sallis et al., and not associated by van der Horst et al.
and Hinkley et al. Biddle et al.’s review of more recent studies of adolescent girls
showed a small negative relationship with activity across six of eight studies.

Psychological correlates
The reviews by Sallis et al., Biddle et al., van der Horst et al., and Hinkley et al.
addressed psychological correlates, although the data are too few to draw
conclusions on pre-school children. For children, Sallis et al. reported that physical
activity is positively associated with intentions and ‘preferences’, although the latter
was not defined.
For adolescents, reviews found that higher levels of perceived competence were
associated with greater physical activity, this being in two of three studies in the Sallis
et al. review. Biddle et al. reported the strength of the association to be small in girls
(four of five studies). For children, Sallis et al. reported perceived competence had an
indeterminate relationship with physical activity from seven studies. ‘Achievement
orientation’ was identified by Sallis et al. as being positively associated with physical
activity in adolescents, although no further information is provided in the review as
to the exact nature of this variable. This finding was confirmed by van der Horst
et al. and appears to be best reflected by a mastery (task) goal orientation prominent
in literature on young people’s achievement motivation (see Roberts, Treasure, &
Conroy, 2007).
Surprisingly, variables such as self-efficacy (confidence) and enjoyment have not
been consistently associated with higher levels of activity across some of the reviews
identified. While Biddle et al. report a positive association for physical activity for
adolescent girls with self-efficacy (all 10 studies) and enjoyment (seven of eight
studies), Sallis et al. report that self-efficacy is inconsistently associated with activity
in both children (nine studies) and adolescents (13 studies), while enjoyment of PE
for adolescents was found to be unrelated to activity across five studies. Van der
Horst et al. confirm this. It is clear that the intuitive logic of an association between
enjoyment and physical activity is not supported by the available evidence.
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 39

Issues of body image and appearance seem to be important for adolescent girls
and are negatively associated with physical activity. Specifically, the correlates of
perceived body attractiveness, importance of appearance, and physical self-worth
were all small-to-moderate in their strength of association with physical activity in
adolescent girls (Biddle et al.). However, Sallis et al. reported that associations with
perceived physical appearance and body image for adolescents was inconclusive. Van
der Horst et al. found no association with activity for ‘self-perception’. Global
feelings of self-esteem were unrelated to physical activity in Sallis et al.’s review
across all six studies. Associations between these types of correlates and physical
activity may be dependent on the self-perception construct being assessed, age, and
gender.
Barriers to physical activity can be real or perceived. Reviews by Sallis et al. and
Biddle et al. showed that barriers are consistently associated with less physical
activity. These appear to be small or small-to-moderate in strength. However, data
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from van der Horst et al. suggested no association. The main barriers include
perceived lack of time, other activities (e.g., homework), lack of interest or
motivation, and the effort required.

Behavioural correlates
Behavioural correlates were reviewed by Sallis et al., van der Horst et al., Biddle et al.,
and Hinkley et al. For children, Sallis et al. found that a healthy diet (all three studies),
but not calorific intake per se, and previous physical activity, were consistently and
positively related to physical activity. However, ‘healthy diet’ was not defined.
Previous physical activity was also shown to be a correlate of current activity for
children (five of six studies), supporting the view that there is at least a moderate level
of tracking of activity during this age period. Sedentary time was inconsistently
associated with activity across 15 studies.
For adolescents, Sallis et al. found that previous physical activity was a correlate
(11 of 12 studies), alongside community sports participation (all seven studies).
Taking part in physical education and school sports also predicted higher activity
levels for adolescents in the review by van der Horst et al. Similarly, Biddle et al.
found that competitive sports participation was a correlate of physical activity in
adolescent girls (all four studies), with a moderate-to-large strength of association,
but no such relation was found for pre-school children, albeit across just two studies.
Smoking was negatively associated with activity in adolescent girls across three of
four studies (Biddle et al.) although Sallis et al. reported this to have an inconsistent
association when results for boys and girls were combined across 15 studies.
Data from three samples in one paper showed that sedentary time after school
and at weekends was negatively associated with physical activity (Sallis et al.). Other
data on the association between sedentary behaviour, such as TV viewing, and
physical activity suggested no association for either children or adolescents (van der
Horst et al.). While sedentary behaviour is a topic of much interest in the
contemporary health literature, its association with physical activity is usually small,
at best, when assessed across the whole day or week, thus rejecting the notion that
one replaces the other (Gorely, Marshall, & Biddle, 2004).
 40 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

Social/cultural correlates
Eight of the nine reviews reported findings for social/cultural correlates, leaving only
Davison and Lawson’s (2006) review excluded. This category of correlates typically
centres on different forms of parental, sibling and peer behaviour and support, and
the reviews by Gustafson and Rhodes (2006), Edwardson and Gorely (2010), and
Pugliese and Tinsley (2007) focused on parental correlates of physical activity only.
This provides a growing evidence base for the potential influence of parents on young
people’s physical activity. The studies on parental correlates can best be categorised
into those that address the association between parental ‘support’ and those
assessing the association between parental physical activity and child physical
activity.
Surprisingly, the reviews by Sallis et al. and Ferreira et al. reported no
consistent social/cultural correlates of physical activity in pre-adolescent children.
Parental support was associated with adolescent physical activity by Sallis et al.
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(two of three studies) and Biddle et al. (seven of eight studies; small-to-moderate
association). Similarly, parental interaction with the child during physical activity
was associated with more activity in pre-school children (Hinkley et al.). The most
comprehensive reviews in this area are by Gustafson and Rhodes (2006), Pugliese
and Tinsley (2007), and Edwardson and Gorely (2010).
Gustafson and Rhodes (2006) located 19 studies examining parental support of
physical activity for young people from 1992 to 2003, with 16 being cross-sectional
and three longitudinal. A strong positive association was reported in all but one of
the studies reflecting parental encouragement, involvement and facilitation.
Edwardson and Gorely (2010) also reviewed parental influence but they analysed
their 96 studies by intensities and types of physical activity. They too investigated
cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and analysed their data separately by
children and adolescents. They found that for children, parental involvement (overall
physical activity and leisure time physical activity), and overall support (organised
physical activity) were associated with types of activity, whereas for adolescents, the
main associations were for parental support (MVPA, vigorous physical activity,
overall physical activity), attitudes/beliefs (MVPA, overall physical activity), trans-
port (MVPA, organised physical activity), and encouragement (physical activity
frequency).
Pugliese and Tinsley (2007) conducted the only meta-analysis in this area by
aggregating associations across 30 studies between parental socialisation factors and
child or adolescent physical activity. They reported significant but small associations
between young people’s physical activity and parental encouragement and instru-
mental behaviour (e.g., transporting the child to physical activity). When all parent
socialisation factors were considered together, including parental physical activity,
the association with child and adolescent physical activity was statistically small
(r  0.17) but significant. However, 994 studies with null findings were required to
reduce the effect size to non-significance. Moreover, it was calculated that children
have an elevated relative risk of 1.41 for being inactive if their parents did not display
the socialisation factors studied. These data suggest that the practical significance of
the findings appear potentially quite strong.
A common assumption in this area is that active parents will have active children.
However, the evidence supporting this is mixed across reviews. Biddle et al. found
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 41

a small-to-moderate positive association between physical activity of adolescent girls

and the physical activity level of the father, and Hinkley et al., for pre-school
children, found an association with parental physical activity. Edwardson and
Gorely’s comprehensive coverage of parental influences did show some associations
for children with parental modelling (perceived parental physical activity) but actual
physical activity levels of parents only associated with the physical activity of
adolescents, and more at higher levels of intensity. The father’s activity seemed more
clearly associated than that of the mother’s. Edwardson and Gorely also reviewed
longitudinal studies and found that overall physical activity of adolescents was
associated with the father’s own activity levels. Pugliese and Tinsley reported a
significant but small effect size for young people’s physical activity and parental
activity (modelling) across 24 studies.
In reviewing 24 studies where measures of both parental and child physical activity
existed, Gustafson and Rhodes concluded that there is ‘much uncertainty’ (p. 88)
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about the relationship between parental and child activity levels. This conclusion
appears to still be valid, although the small trends that exist seem to favour
associations between young people’s physical activity and that of their father’s.

Environmental correlates
Six reviews provided evidence on environmental correlates. Sallis et al.’s review
located six environmental variables studied at least three times with children. These
were access to programmes and facilities, parental transport to physical activity,
season, urban/rural environment, neighbourhood safety, and time spent outdoors.
Positive associations with physical activity were found for time spent outside (all
three studies) and facility/programme access (three of four studies). Time outside was
also a correlate for pre-school children’s activity levels (Hinkley et al.). The season
and urban/rural distinction were inconsistently associated with activity.
For adolescents, Sallis et al. found only three variables studied at least three
times: equipment, opportunities to exercise, and sports media influence. Only
‘opportunities to exercise’ was consistently and positively associated with physical
activity (two of three studies). Unfortunately, we have no further information on the
nature of these opportunities, although Sallis et al. did find that availability of
equipment was unrelated to physical activity in this age group across nine studies.
Biddle et al. identified 18 environmental variables studied as correlates of physical
activity in adolescent girls. These included local facilities, crime, access, the school
PE environment, and seasonal factors. Unfortunately, none were studied more than
twice and thus did not meet their inclusion criterion.
Ferreira et al.’s review of children’s environmental correlates found that time
spent outside was a consistent correlate of activity (all five studies), supporting the
finding from Sallis et al. (all three studies). In addition, Ferreira et al. found that
school physical activity policy was also associated with greater activity. Such policies
addressed time allowed for free play, time spent outdoors at school, and number of
field trips.
For adolescents, in contrast to Sallis et al.’s finding that ‘opportunities to
exercise’ are associated with greater physical activity, Ferreira et al. found no
association between activity and ‘access to community physical activity facilities’ in
32 of 45 studies. Davison and Lawson, on the other hand, did find a positive
 42 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

association for ‘availability of recreation facilities’ when analysing data across

children and adolescents. Specifically, six of eight studies showed a positive
association when perceptions of the environment were assessed by either adults or
children. Both studies assessing the environment objectively also showed a positive
association.
Ferreira et al. found that objectively assessed neighbourhood crime incidence was
negatively associated with activity (two of three studies), but adolescent perceptions
of safety were not (13 of 14 studies). Similarly, Davison and Lawson found a negative
association between physical activity and objective measures of area deprivation and
crime (three of three studies), but not for perceived safety (seven of nine studies). In
addition, they reported that higher levels of physical activity were associated with the
availability of facilities, including permanent play structures, in schools, as well as
with living closer to school.
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Discussion
The purpose of the present paper was to synthesise systematic quantitative reviews of
non-intervention research relating to participation in physical activity by young
people. This review of reviews has addressed demographic/biological, psychological,
behavioural, social/cultural, and environmental correlates of physical activity in
young people.

Demographic and biological correlates

The decline in physical activity by age is a common finding and appears most marked
in late childhood and early adolescence, particularly for girls. Moreover, the gender
difference in physical activity appears to be highly reproducible. However, physical
activity is nearly always assessed in general terms, such as ‘total activity’ rather than
specific types of activity (e.g., active travel, sports, etc.), which may have pronounced
age and gender effects. More specific measures of activity might reveal additional
information on activity preferences.
Findings on ethnicity were either small or inconsistent, which may reflect deficits
in the literature. Sample sizes are often too small to make meaningful comparisons
across more than a few different ethnic populations. In addition, there may be subtle
differences between what might appear to be similar minority ethnic groups, such as
grouping Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani in the UK as ‘South Asian’ and without
differentiation. Confounding effects of SES also need consideration.
SES is often thought to be an important correlate of physical activity. However,
the data are surprisingly unclear with respect to children and adolescents, confirming
a recent systematic review on socio-economic status and physical activity in
adolescents (Stalsberg & Pedersen, 2010). Moreover, if SES is related to activity, it
may affect different physical activities in different ways. Little is known in this regard
at present. Measurement variability may also be an issue because ‘SES’ is reflected in
many different ways, such as by educational level, income, or number of parents, or
through assessment of both parents or only the father. Overall, the findings are
variable and do not provide a clear message regarding SES and physical activity in
young people.
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 43

Higher BMI might be expected to correlate with lower activity levels, but this
seems to be the case only for data on adolescent girls. Given the biological changes
associated with the transition into adolescence for girls, it is not surprising that
greater adiposity is related to less activity. However, the studies are largely cross-
sectional, therefore it is not possible to establish the direction of any influence that
might exist. Recent data suggest that a reverse causality hypothesis may be tenable
(Metcalf et al., 2010).

Psychological correlates
It was demonstrated that competence perceptions seem to be an important correlate
of physical activity for adolescents. One issue concerning perceptions of competence
is how one judges competence. Research has been conducted on whether young
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people define success in terms of relative superiority (e.g., winning), and hence being
‘other people’ focused (ego orientation), or through being self-improvement focused
(task orientation; this is likely to be the ‘achievement motivation’ correlate alluded to
by Sallis et al.). Such a differentiation of competence perceptions develops in late
childhood (Nicholls, 1989). A systematic review of the literature on this topic in
physical activity showed that adopting a task orientation is likely to be beneficial for
motivation and well-being in young people (Biddle, Wang, Kavussanu, & Spray,
2003). One reason for this is that a task orientation is associated with self-focused
strategies of personal effort and striving
a more intrinsic motivational style. This is
associated, in turn, with higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction (Deci & Ryan,
1985, 2002; Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2007). Pressuring children to be active, or
making them feel guilty if they are inactive, is likely to be counterproductive
(Chatzisarantis, Frederick, Biddle, Hagger, & Smith, 2007).
In the present review it was found that enjoyment of activity seems more
important for girls than boys, particularly at a time when activity levels are showing
a decline. If girls find physical activity more difficult and less appealing, this has
some consistency with self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997). This states that
perceptions of efficacy or confidence are likely to be most predictive in situations
of difficulty or adversity. For example, confidence in being able to walk to school for
those who live close by is less likely to predict activity than, say, confidence to
undertake a strenuous exercise programme requiring travel, money and social
support.
Regarding self-esteem and physical self-perceptions, the findings reported can be
explained by reference to a multidimensional hierarchical model of self-esteem (Fox,
1997; Shavelson, Hubner, & Stanton, 1976). This model proposes that self-esteem is
influenced by multiple domains of the self, such as perceptions of our academic,
physical, or social selves. For example, the physical self comprises sub-domains of
physical fitness, sports competence, physical appearance/attractiveness, etc. These
will influence feelings of self-esteem over time. One might expect that global
perceptions of self-esteem will be less influential on activity levels than perceptions of
the physical self, and this is supported in the results. It is recommended that future
studies of psychological correlates of physical activity focus on physical rather than
just general self-perceptions.
 44 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

Behavioural correlates
From this review there is some evidence for other health behaviours to be associated
with physical activity in young people. These include diet, smoking, previous physical
activity, and sedentary behaviours. For children, the relation with healthy diet may be
a function of parental influence for both diet (Pearson, Biddle, & Gorely, 2009a,
2009b) and physical activity behaviours, although this may vary by age.
Overall sedentary time was inconsistently associated with activity, and this
supports a comprehensive meta-analysis showing an association close to zero
between the most prevalent sedentary behaviour of TV/video viewing and physical
activity in young people (Marshall, Biddle, Gorely, Cameron, & Murdey, 2004). This
suggests that some sedentary behaviours can coexist with physical activity. However,
while overall sedentary time may be unrelated to physical activity, certain key time
periods may be important (Atkin, Gorely, Biddle, Marshall, & Cameron, 2008).
After school and at weekends may be such times when sedentary behaviours compete
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with physical activity, and this may have been missed by not analysing data within
specific time periods. Later in the evening, for example, when TV viewing is at its
peak, is a time when sedentary behaviour is less likely to compete with physical
activity. This is consistent with the finding that general sedentary time (Sallis et al.,
2000) and TV viewing (Biddle et al., 2005; Marshall et al., 2004) has either an
inconsistent or no relationship with physical activity. More studies on specific
temporal links between sedentary time and activity are required (Biddle, Marshall,
Gorely, & Cameron, 2009).
Current findings suggest that playing sport may be a good predictor of physical
activity in adolescents. While this is an intuitively logical finding, it might be a
mistake to think that playing organised sport is the key to increasing activity levels in
adolescents. As Biddle et al. said:

There are many forms of physical activity and these all need to be exploited to maximise
participation. For those who wish to play organised sport, they must be provided with
opportunities and suitably encouraged. For others, we must provide either a sporting
environment that is more appealing than at present or seek other opportunities for
physical activity, such as active transport. (2005, p. 429).

These comments were made in the light of many adolescents, particularly girls,
rejecting competitive sport. Nevertheless, it appears that if we can attract this age
group into sport, and keep them there, activity levels will be enhanced.

Social/cultural correlates
The key issue concerning social and cultural correlates of physical activity for young
people is parents. A distinction needs to be made between parental support and
parental physical activity. Although parental support is associated with greater
activity in their offspring, the nature of parental support needs unpacking. Such
support comes in many different forms, including social, material or emotional
support. Gustafson and Rhodes (2006) suggested that three important forms of
parental support are encouragement, involvement and facilitation. This requires
further testing with prospective and experimental designs.
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 45

The evidence from the reviews shows that parental support is associated with
physical activity in young people. Evidence is less clear concerning the relationship
between parental physical activity and child and adolescent physical activity,
although sometimes such an association can be found (Edwardson & Gorely,
2010; Pugliese & Tinsley, 2007). However, parental physical activity may act on
young people’s activity through the mediating variable of parental support, and this
is rarely tested. Equally, the association between parental physical activity and
parental support may not exist and the only influence is from parental support.
Although we cannot resolve these issues at present, a large-scale study sheds light on
some of these relationships. Ornelas, Perreira, and Ayala (2007) analysed data from
13,246 American adolescents (mean age 15.5 years) sampled in the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Measures at wave 1 included family
cohesion, parental monitoring (rules and guidelines on TV viewing, clothes, food
choices, etc.), parent-child communication, and parental engagement (participation
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of parent with child in various activities). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was

assessed at wave 2, one year after wave 1. Results showed that greater family
cohesion, parent-child communication and parental engagement were all indepen-
dent predictors of physical activity over a one-year period for both boys and girls
(odds ratios 1.09
1.25). Parental monitoring was not associated with physical
activity for either sex. This provides useful data on the likely types of parental
behaviour and support that might be helpful in promoting physical activity for young
people. Our confidence in the findings is strengthened by the large sample size and
longitudinal design.
In summary, we can conclude that parental ‘influence’ is important for young
people’s physical activity, but it would be naı̈ve to report that active parents
necessarily have active children. Where an association does exist, the physical activity
level of the father seems slightly stronger than that of the mother.

Environmental correlates
Research on the relationship between physical activity and environmental factors in
young people is still evolving. Environmental variables, while seemingly holding great
potential for understanding physical activity in children and adolescents, require
greater clarity and further study.
Having said that, it does appear that variables clustered around the concepts of
access, opportunities, and availability to be active are associated with higher levels of
physical activity. This is consistent with results showing that sports participation is a
good predictor of activity levels. Moreover, time spent outside is an important factor
for physical activity, although this is likely to interact with factors such as local
amenities, safety, road traffic density, etc. Time outside should reduce sedentary
behaviour. Greater precision is needed to unpack many of these concepts. Underlying
this lack of clarity may be the way environmental variables and physical activity are
studied. Specific environmental features are only likely to affect certain types of
physical activity; for example, access to pavements or pedestrianised areas is likely to
influence walking but not necessarily cycling. Having exercise equipment in the home
is not likely to influence active commuting whereas distance to school is. If only
generalised measures of physical activity are available, as is the case in many studies,
then relationships with environmental variables will be hard to find.
 46 S.J.H. Biddle et al.

Methodological issues
The field of study concerning physical activity correlates suffers from several
methodological shortcomings. First, the measurement of physical activity is still
developing and, despite technological advances that allow for movement sensors to
better quantify activity, we still have difficulties in assessing the type and context of
physical activity using anything other than self-report, at least for large samples,
although this is changing quite rapidly (Riddoch et al., 2007). Without appropriate
and accurate measures of the behaviour itself, it will always be a struggle to identify
clear correlates. Moreover, we need to have studies addressing not only total physical
activity, but different types of activities, such as walking for transport, playing sport,
casual play, etc. This will allow for more precise identification of correlates. This has
been done, in part, in adult research (Humpel, Owen, & Leslie, 2002; Owen, Humpel,
Leslie, Bauman, & Sallis, 2004), but only Edwardson and Gorely’s (2010) review
included in the current paper has done that.
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One other difficulty is that primary research studies will use different measures
and definitions for similar constructs. A good case in point concerns parental
influence. The evidence points to a positive association between parental influence
and physical activity of children, but the term ‘parental influence’ is broad and has
been studied in many different ways.
Many studies are cross-sectional assessments of both psychological correlates
and physical activity, thus there is a likelihood of bias. It would be better to utilise a
prospective design whereby we assess psychological correlates at baseline and then
assess physical activity objectively at some time in the future. Few studies have done
this. Moreover, the assessment of psychological correlates has been varied. There is a
need for greater use of validated measures of constructs, although this can be
difficult in large-scale surveys where time to complete the survey is short.
The reviews addressed in the current paper inevitably draw on similar literature,
depending on their timeframes and focus. Moreover, only one has synthesised the
findings using meta-analytic techniques (Pugliese & Tinsley, 2007).

Limitations
The conclusions drawn are based on a review of reviews. This in itself has limitations.
We have relied on only nine reviews of correlates of physical activity, not all of which
address all categories of correlates or similar age groups. They also conduct their own
review in different ways, with inconsistent methods for assessing whether variables are
included in their review and how strong the associations might be with physical
activity. Obviously there is inconsistency in how authors have addressed the selection
and measurement of correlates, although the framework offered by Sallis et al. (2000),
with groupings by demographic/biological, psychological, behavioural, social, and
environmental, is helpful and allows for data to be brought together in a meaningful
way. However, the mapping of constructs within these headings and between studies is
far from perfect.
The nine reviews were generally not precise in defining ‘physical activity’ and this
may have led to the inclusion of different types of behaviours across studies, or not
recognising distinctions in correlates across different forms of activity. However,
generally, ‘physical activity’ includes all physical movement of at least moderate
 International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 47

intensity. Nonetheless, measurement of physical activity, and particularly in children,

is difficult. Not only do we want to quantify different levels of activity, but we also
require more refined information concerning the nature of the activity, its location
and social context, as well as its frequency, duration and intensity. Measurement
error plagues our field because without accurate measures of the behaviour we are
always struggling to demonstrate strong associations with other variables, if they
exist. Even so-called ‘objective’ measures do not provide a complete set of
information on activity patterns (Welk, 2002; Welk, Corbin, & Dale, 2000).
Moreover, there may be a tendency to publication bias and the reporting of more
positive results across the reviews investigated.
Overall, these difficulties weaken our ability to draw strong and reliable
conclusions from a review of correlates and this note of caution needs to be
recognised throughout this paper. Nevertheless, despite obvious weaknesses in
relying solely on evidence from a review of reviews, the large coverage of literature
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afforded by such a method, as well as the ability to bring together disparate findings
into an evidence synthesis, has much to commend it.

Conclusions
Notwithstanding these limitations, the evidence is suggestive of a number of different
types of correlates of physical activity for children and adolescents. Beyond age and
gender, though, most are likely to have only small or small-to-moderate effects in
isolation and may work best in interaction with other influences. Regrettably, we are
still not close to identifying the nature of these interactions. Psychologists will need
to incorporate a wider range of variables beyond individual psycho-social constructs
in their work if they are to contribute fully to the understanding of participation in
physical activity in young people. Future work on correlates will also need to follow
the Medical Research Council (MRC) guidelines on interventions (Craig et al., 2008)
whereby exploratory and pilot work precedes intervention designs for behaviour
change. In other words, the study of correlates is a good place to start but not finish

they must lead to better behaviour change interventions.

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