{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T10:22:05Z","timestamp":1771928525376,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]],"date-time":"2026-02-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770076800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004359","name":"Swedish Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004359","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Physical exercise (PE) is important for health. Girls are reported to participate less compared to boys. Multiple factors influence participation and non-participation, including neighborhood, socioeconomic status, social support, and disability. Factors may combine and form paths to participation or non-participation, yet these paths are unknown. To our knowledge, this is the first study to combine cluster analysis with a configurational comparative method to explore paths to participation and non-participation in PE among adolescents.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Data from 178 Swedish 15\u201318-year-olds revealed two exercise-related clusters:\n                      <jats:italic>Not exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Sporting &amp;amp; Exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Girls and boys in these clusters were analyzed separately by coincidence analysis to identify paths leading to membership in each cluster. The initial analysis included 41 questions aggregated into 24 variables.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Not having quick access to pocket money is a path by itself to\n                      <jats:italic>Not exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      among girls and part of the path to\n                      <jats:italic>Sporting &amp;amp; Exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      . The paths to\n                      <jats:italic>Not exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      are more complex for boys. Participation in adult-led activities differs between boys in the\n                      <jats:italic>Not exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Sporting &amp;amp; Exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      clusters. Having a disability is only a difference-making factor among boys when combined with \u201cnot avoiding anyone in the neighborhood\u201d and \u201csometimes meeting friends in person.\u201d\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Multiple distinct paths lead to\n                      <jats:italic>Sporting &amp;amp; Exercising<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Not exercising,<\/jats:italic>\n                      and these differ between girls and boys. Paths to exercising and non-exercising can be multi-factorial in nature, where several factors must be jointly present to explain membership in a particular exercise-related cluster. Future research may wish to adopt a similar configurational approach to explore other high-priority activities in which adolescents do or do not participate to improve interventions and policies aimed at increasing adolescent participation in PE.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1723898","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]],"date-time":"2026-02-03T06:30:31Z","timestamp":1770100231000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Exploring paths to participation and non-participation in physical exercise among Swedish adolescents"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Gothilander","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, M\u00e4lardalen University","place":["V\u00e4ster\u00e5s, Sweden"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Edward J.","family":"Miech","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Indiana University School of Medicine","place":["Indianapolis, IN, United States"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lena","family":"Almqvist","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, M\u00e4lardalen University","place":["V\u00e4ster\u00e5s, Sweden"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Johanna","family":"Fritz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, M\u00e4lardalen University","place":["V\u00e4ster\u00e5s, Sweden"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Camilla","family":"Eriksson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, M\u00e4lardalen University","place":["V\u00e4ster\u00e5s, Sweden"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"126","article-title":"Physical activity, exercise, and physical fitness: definitions and distinctions for health-related research","volume":"100","author":"Caspersen","year":"1985","journal-title":"Public Health Rep"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1111\/nuf.12296","article-title":"How is exercise different from physical activity? 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