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discussed in the context of activity and health; it is both an outcome of activity and


a determinant of activity.


In contrast to the public health/biomedical model, physical activities are also


important avenues for learning, enjoyment, social interactions, self-understanding,


and physical and psychological development, and in many parts of the world are


essential for subsistence. A dimension of physical activity that is often overlooked


is context—the types, purposes, and settings of activity which include play,


physical education, exercise, sport, dance, physical labor, and household chores.


Contexts per se and meanings attached to them vary with age among children and


adolescents, and among and within different cultural groups (Malina 2008 ).


Physical inactivity refers to sedentary behaviors which are associated with very


low levels of energy expenditure. It is independent of physical activity and also has


multiple dimensions. Although the public health/biomedical view is critical of


excessive physical inactivity, many sedentary behaviors are highly valued by


societies—school, studying, reading, music, art, television and movie viewing,


computer games, and the like and have many educational and social benefits for the


individual and community. Potential benefits associated with engagement in


computer or video games include, for example, superior performance on a number


of cognitive and motor tasks. Motorized transport, of course, is a form of physical


inactivity that is highly valued by major segments of society, including youth.
Physically active and inactive behaviors are largely independent of each other.


They are, however, performed in a societal context, and many have high valence in


societies. There is a need for better understanding of meanings attached to and


motivations for physically active and sedentary behaviors by children and adoles-


cents and also by adults. The behaviors are of interest to education, to public health


and medicine, to parents, to sport, and to communities in general.


Sport merits special mention. School and non-school sport, both formal (orga-


nized) and informal, are major contexts of physical activity for youth, and many


youth perceive physical activity as equivalent with sport. Participation in sport has


the potential to contribute to the objectives of physical activity, but specific sports


vary in intensity and duration of activity.


In the context of“making visible the invisible,”many forms of physical activity


potentially fall into the category of the“invisible.”Organized sport, school physical


education, and specific training programs are highly visible forms of activity among


youth. On the other hand, many physical activities may not be perceived or con-


sidered as physical activity per se, e.g., walking to school, walking to the store,


shopping in a mall, informal play, household chores, herding and feeding animals,


getting animal feed, door-to-door sales of tortillas in rural Mexican communities,


and harvesting food. Such activities are often necessities and/or chores that simply


must be done. Although all entail physical activity, individuals may not recall them


as physical activity unless appropriately prompted in a questionnaire or interview.


Assume, for example, a student in a major metropolitan center who uses public


transportation to travel to and from school and lives nine blocks from the subway or


metro station. He/she walks nine blocks from home to the subway in the morning
and then back home on returning 5 days per week. The pace of walking would


68 R.M. Malina et al.

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