Multicultural scholarship in sport and exercise psychology should help us understand and apply cultural competencies for all to be physically active. In the present study, two Asian countries, Japan and Singapore, were chosen. The participation rate for physical activities among adolescent girls tends to be lower than that of boys in both countries. Thus, the purpose of the project was to gain knowledge and understanding about sociocultural factors that may explain adolescent girls' perceptions and behaviors toward sport, physical activity, and physical education (PE). A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with focus groups was used to understand meanings of physical activity among Buddhist Japanese, and Hindu Indians and Christian Chinese from Singapore. Each focus group consisted of four or five girls and female researchers. Based on the analysis, we created four themes which were "cultural identities," "Asian girls and sport/physical activities," "PE experiences," "motivation for future involvement." The Buddhist Japanese, Hindu Indian, and Christian Chinese participants each reported unique physical activity experiences, and all the participants were aware of how Asian culture may affect being physically active. Experiences of PE classes were similar but perceptions of their PE attire were different for Christian Chinese and Hindu Indian adolescent girls. Based on the results, the importance of nurturing cultural competencies and ways to encourage girls to be physically active throughout life were discussed.
Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Buddhism ; Christianity ; Cultural Competency ; Cultural Diversity ; *Exercise ; Female ; Hinduism ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Motivation ; *Motor Activity ; *Physical Education and Training ; Questionnaires ; *Sports

The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations of replacing accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior (SB) with physical activity (PA) and depression in a sample of Japanese frail older adults using an Isotemporal Substitution (IS) model. Among 139 frail older adults, accelerometer was utilized to identify the daily average time spent in SB, light-intensity PA (LPA), and moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA). Depression was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Version-Japanese (GDS-S-J). The relationship between SB, LPA, and MVPA with depression was examined with three models of multiple regression analysis: single factor model, partition model, and IS model. As results, LPA times was negatively associated with GDS-S-J scores in the single factor model (B = -0.09, p = 0.007) and the partition model (B = -0.13, p < 0.001). In the IS model, replacement of 10 minutes of SB with an equal amount of LPA time showed a significant negative association with GDS-S-J scores (B = -0.09, p=0.003). These results suggest that replacing a small amount of SB with LPA may be associated with an improvement in depression in frail older adults.