For the girls, the main sources of physical activity were from routine tasks, especially walking locally. The Bangladeshi girls spoke of making a determined effort to walk as opposed to travel by bus; and both the Bangladeshi and Somali girls talked about gaining exercise benefits from housework as well as participating in exercises such as sit-ups and dancing in their bedroom. Somali girls reported playing games such as football with a sibling or tennis over the fence with a neighbour. Current participation in organised activities such as; acrobatics classes, swimming clubs or attending a paid gym was only discussed by the Welsh girls. Although the Bangladeshi and Somali participants spoke of their intentions to attend a gym or purchase a stationary bike, in reality, they did not go to a gym or use an exercise bike.
Similar to the girls, the boys reported walking as a source of activity, but they also engaged in a variety of outdoor activities such as playing football or basketball with friends. The boys were more likely to use a local gym, often paying fees from their own money, rather than using the facilities provided by school. Overall, the boys were more active than the girls, with some Welsh boys helping with coaching outside school and supporting younger pupils during physical education lessons. Somali boys attended the local leisure centre (especially in winter) and reported participating in sport and daily activity.
Barriers and motivators to exercise
All the boys talked about the positive aspects of exercise, which is something the girls hardly mentioned. For the girls, particularly the Bangladeshi girls, the only positive aspect of exercising was aiding weight loss. The boys felt that exercise was good to burn off fatty food to overcome having a bad diet. They spoke of the health benefits of exercise, and wanting to feel fit and look good. That exercise builds up muscles and gave them confidence making them feel better. The boys discussed their siblings and friends as motivators, and frequently went down to the local park to 'mess about'.
"we have like all fatty stuff yeah and then we think "ah let's just do a bit of exercise, we'll get rid of it" (Bangladeshi boy)
Sports makes you look fit. (Somali boy)
It was actually quite good though, coz you feel proud of yourself after you've ran all that, like you know ran a long distance... and you're like you know, I've done something. (Bangladeshi boy)
The girls however, talked about a lack of motivation, in particular, that it was difficult to start exercising; all the girls interviewed talked about a lack of time. The Bangladeshi girls felt that exercise could have a negative effect on school work and revision in terms of making a person more tired and making concentration harder. The Somali girls felt that if a person was not fat there was little need to exercise, that only overweight people should exercise. For the Welsh girls, access to facilities outside school was too complicated, for example, the cost of joining a club was expensive and they did not have access to the facilities at school. However, in school it was the hassle of feeling sweaty after activity and no proper showers that were the barriers to exercising.
That's what my family says, you skinny why are you exercising, you're skinny, you don't need to exercise. (Somali girl)
(Regarding access to swimming) But you've got to make sure that there isn't anything (clubs) there and sometimes you have to like book a lane before, you can't just go in and go swimming (Welsh girl)
The Bangladeshi and Somali girls spoke of the embarrassment factor of exercising and of being too shy to do sports with others. They felt there was no encouragement to exercise from their family. This led to the sense of being de-motivated and not being bothered to exercise. The girls in one Bangladeshi group spoke of a community club that their mothers had joined. Their mothers had begun exercising through the club, taking exercise classes and walking. However, the girls had little interest or information about the club and what their mothers were doing.
I think it's easier for boys because they can go out more and they can go up to the park and play football and they won't get told off by their parents because they're looking at you. (Bangladeshi girl)
The girls were quite passive about finding out about what activities were available. Somali girls said they did not know what was available, both in and out of school, as there was no advertising or publicity. They knew of 'girls only' teams when they were younger, but didn't know if these continued to exist for older girls. They felt that this could be because there were not enough older girls interested to make a girls team.
I used to bring my kit in almost every day but like people weren't doing it so then I got bored because there wasn't enough people doing it with me so I was like "What the hell is the point" (Somali girl).
For boys, the main barriers included poor access to facilities, and limited opportunities for participation in physical activity due to the requirement of supervision by adults and teachers. They felt access to school facilities was restricted, for example, the goal centre/playing fields and pool are closed after school and used for lessons during school time. They expressed a need to access school facilities, such as playing fields and pitches, outside of school hours and reported that during the day there has to be a teacher supervising the use the school facilities but there were rarely teachers available. The boys mentioned that afterschool activities are more readily available for the younger schoolchildren. Although they wanted more freedom to use the school sports facilities, they wanted to use places where they could to simply 'hang out' with friends and not be supervised by adults. In general, they felt health and safety restrictions (i.e. 'avoiding injury' and the 'school being sued') made it harder to be active. Although the boys recognised that they could pay to become a member of sports club or gym, this was regarded as too expensive an option.
We don't want to like go there and a teacher telling us "do this, do that" we just want to go and you know, just do what we want like if it's a football...we just go and play football rather than doing this and that with the teachers...'Cos we organise it ourselves...(Bangladeshi boy)
The Somali boys felt sport was now very popular but that there were not enough facilities for everyone. Even with the government funded initiatives, the Welsh boys reported that there were a limited number of coaches and not all the people who wanted to participate were able to, as it was oversubscribed. Indoor facilities such as the leisure centre were all over booked and overcrowded, and the Somali boys felt that outdoor activities were limited by the weather. Specifically, they complained that the sun sets early in winter leaving little time after school, that it rains too much and that their parents think that if they play outside they will get a cold, so they have to stay in. The Somali and Bangladeshi boys suggested their families were not very supportive of them doing exercise. This was because of the worry of injury, for example in the gym 'You might drop a weight on your foot' (Bangladeshi boy). The Welsh boys reported that their parents said 'Now you are 16 I am not giving you any more money" (Welsh boy); and so the need for a part time job coupled with their academic workload left no spare time for exercise. Many recreational and sports facilities were reported as not within walking distance, and only those with supportive parents were transported to activities. Therefore, for the boys, there was a good level of motivation but they felt frustrated at the lack of access to good facilities and too much adult supervision of their activities.