Afterschool Program Participation, Youth Physical Fitness, and Overweight

The children who most need fitness-focused afterschool programs may not be participating in them.

This study linked administrative data on children in a San Francisco Bay Area community who participated in afterschool programs with measured weight and fitness data. All California students in grades 5, 7, and 9 take a physical fitness test. The afterschool programs were both fitness-oriented and other types (academic enrichment, arts, or leadership). Some 63 percent of the area’s students are Latino.

Lower-income and Latino students were less likely to participate in fitness-focused afterschool programs and more likely to be unfit, “indicating the confounding effects of disadvantage,” the authors write. There were no effects on students’ fitness or overweight status from either type of program.

A Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children

  1. 1 An Introduction to Salud America!
  2. 2 Salud America! A National Research Network to Build the Field and Evidence to Prevent Latino Childhood Obesity
  3. 3 Salud Tiene Sabor
  4. 4 Growing Healthy Kids
  5. 5 Afterschool Program Participation, Youth Physical Fitness, and Overweight
  6. 6 Bridging Research and Policy to Address Childhood Obesity Among Border Hispanics
  7. 7 Combining Photovoice and Focus Groups
  8. 8 Latina Voices in Childhood Obesity
  9. 9 Latino Church Leaders' Perspectives on Childhood Obesity Prevention
  10. 10 Video Game-Based Exercise, Latino Children's Physical Health, and Academic Achievement
  11. 11 Latino Families, Primary Care, and Childhood Obesity
  12. 12 Summer and Follow-Up Interventions to Affect Adiposity with Mothers and Daughters
  13. 13 Food Purchasing Selection Among Low-Income, Spanish-Speaking Latinos
  14. 14 Obesity Among Latino Children Within a Migrant Farmworker Community
  15. 15 Exploring Potential Research Contributions to Policy
  16. 16 Seeking Environmental and Policy Solutions to Address Latino Childhood Obesity
  17. 17 Building Strategies and Leadership for Change
  18. 18 San Antonio as a Face of the Future

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