A Qualitative Study: African-American Girls' Perceptions of Why Physical Activity Declines in High School.

African-American adolescent girls are less physically active than any other U.S. racial/ethnic group. The school environment may contribute to physical inactivity in this group. The purpose of this study was to explore African-American girls' perceptions offactors that contribute to girls being less physically active in high school. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to identify individual perceptions of girls regarding physical activity. This resulted in four themes: personal appearances, scheduling/timing of classes, environmental/facilities issues, and lack of variety of activities in PE classes. Thefindings from this study indicated that African-American adolescent girls did not feel the physical or social school environment encouraged or supported them to be physically active.