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Describes the decreasing prevalence of physical activity participation over the young adult years and the patterns of difference in the physical activity habits of young men and young women. Physical activity habits during the young adult years are likely to be important influences on habitual physical activity during overall adult life and, consequently, have significant implications for long‐term health outcomes. Tertiary‐education campuses are settings where there exist important yet partially neglected opportunities to influence the physical activity habits of young adults. Uses examples from Australia and the USA are used to characterise relevant contextual and practical aspects of the campus setting and the physical activity promotion opportunities that it may provide. Reviews findings from two campus‐based physical activity intervention studies. In conclusion, identifies a set of issues that require further research.

The focus of this chapter is to provide an overview of the role of adapted physical education in the school curriculum as determined by federal law. Adapted physical education is not a new concept, yet dependent upon school district resources, students with unique motor needs may or may not have access to adapted physical education provided by professionals trained in this special education field.

The percentage of North Americans who have one or more physical disabilities continues to rise. Specifically, the percentage of people with ambulatory disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and other health impairments is increasing every year. This phenomenon calls for pragmatic measures to help provide better transition and related services to students with physical disabilities and other health impairments. It is anticipated that well-planned collaborative transition services provided to students with physical disabilities and other health impairments will result in improved quality of life and independent living in the community. In this chapter, we discuss transition and transition-related services, supporting legislation for persons with disabilities, transition from rehabilitation centers and hospitals to job settings and community-based programs.

In this study, we examined the association between girls’ participation in high school sports and the physical activity, weight, body mass, and body composition of adolescent females during the 1970s when girls’ sports participation was dramatically increasing as a result of Title IX. We found that increases in girls’ participation in high school sports, a proxy for expanded athletic opportunities for adolescent females, were associated with an increase in physical activity and an improvement in weight and body mass among girls. In contrast, adolescent boys experienced a decline in physical activity and an increase in weight and body mass during the period when girls’ athletic opportunities were expanding. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that Title IX and the increase in athletic opportunities among adolescent females it engendered had a beneficial effect on the health of adolescent girls.

The strategy for sport in Wales, Climbing Higher, establishes some very ambitious targets for raising the levels of sport and physical activity participation over the next 20 years. To support its strategy, the Welsh Assembly Government has promised an additional 12,000 jobs within the sport and recreation sector. Research conducted with employers highlights that many sports degree programmes are not “fit for purpose” and are not fully preparing graduates for work within the industry. This paper considers how the University of Glamorgan, in liaison with key industry partners, has designed a sports development degree “fit” for the industry and which meets the expectations of Climbing Higher. The success of the degree programme relies upon the formation of multi‐agency partnerships at a local and regional level. Experiential learning underpins the degree with students required to reflect upon the challenges that they face in getting participants more active; the community placements embedded within modules allow students to experience the complexities of working within the sports development sector. It is a unique and holistic approach, supported by key local and national partners and is fundamental in supporting the objectives set by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Parents are important agents in the physical activity socializing process in children. The present study aims to examine the parental mediatory role in children's physical activity participation via a youth physical activity promotion (YPAP) model.

A total of 872 Hong Kong Chinese children (aged ten to 13) in ten schools were invited to participate in the study. Their physical self‐perception, physical activity perception, parental influence, and physical activity level were assessed. Structural equation modelling was employed to examine the relationship among the variables.

The final model accounted for 18 per cent of the variance in children's physical activity participation. Parental influence imposed a direct (β=0.19) and indirect effect on children's physical activity participation through the children's physical activity perception (β=0.33) and physical self‐perceptions (β=0.19).

This study involved a cross‐sectional design and data were collected over a single time frame; a cause‐and‐effect relationship among variables could not be drawn.

The present study emphasizes how parental influence is related to children's physical participation. The information is useful for health professionals in the design of intervention programs to promote children's physical activity participation.

This paper aims to extend research applying the principle of market segmentation to gain insight into changing the physical activity behaviour of children, particularly their walk to/from school behaviour. It further examined the utility of employing theory, specifically the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), for this purpose. Childhood obesity is a leading public health concern globally.

An online survey was conducted with 512 caregivers of primary school children. Caregivers were targeted given their control over children’s walk to/from school behaviour. Two-step cluster analysis, based on 14 geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural variables, was used to investigate groupings within the data set.

The analysis revealed three distinct segments of caregivers, each with unique beliefs about their children walking to/from school: short-distance frequent walkers, middle-distance sporadic walkers and long-distance non-walkers. Four variables were found to be highly important in distinguishing these segments: distance to school, current walk to/from school behaviour, subjective norms and intentions to increase their child’s walk to school behaviour.

The paper demonstrates the usefulness of behavioural, geographic and psychographic variables, as measured by the TPB, in distinguishing segments, offering an important contrast to prior segmentation studies emphasising demographic variables. This result provides empirical evidence of the value of using the four segmentation bases, extending beyond a demographic focus, and the importance of incorporating behavioural theory in market segmentation. In so doing, this research provides key insights into changing children’s walking behaviour.

In this final article, Kalyani Gandhi writes in a personal capacity about her career to date and about the work of her organisation, PRIAE, in seeking solutions and changing policy across a range of areas, including mental health, palliative care and lifelong learning for people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities.

The authors applied a multidimensional conceptual lens that incorporated physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual health dimensions to explore pre-adolescent children's understanding of health and what it means to be healthy.

Forty-six children aged 9–11 years old completed a short questionnaire about their understanding of health and what it means to be healthy. Data analysis was completed through a deductive analysis applying a multidimensional conceptual lens and an inductive thematic analysis of the content of children's responses to each question.

The analysis of children's understandings of health and being healthy both revealed five common themes: Being well, physically active, fit and healthy; Healthy eating and body composition; Physical activity examples; Physical activity characteristics; and Unsure or ambiguous. Across both questions the majority of responses reflected the physical dimension of health, with only a few references to the social and emotional dimensions. There was no evidence of the intellectual or spiritual dimensions of health in children's responses to either question.

The authors’ data suggest that the plateau in adolescent UK children's trajectory of understandings originates earlier in childhood, with children aged 9–11 showing a similarly limited understanding of health and being healthy as UK adolescents. Moreover, this focus on the physical dimension is narrower than previously considered as it is restricted to the movement category of this dimension only.

The authors’ findings have implications for the timing and focus of health education interventions for children.