Background: In Saudi Arabia, approximately 14.8% of female children and adolescents less than 20 years old are obese, compared with only 9.4% of males (Ng et al., 2014). These percentages are significantly higher among adolescents than they are for children. One major factor linked to the high prevalence of adolescent obesity and related chronic illnesses involves inadequate physical activity (PA). Although the World Health Organization (WHO) and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) set a recommendation for children and adolescents to attain 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) per day (WHO, 2010), approximately 75% of female adolescents in Saudi Arabia do not meet the guidelines (Al-Hazzaa et al., 2011). While culturally appropriate interventions are needed to increase PA among Saudi female adolescents, no studies examining their PA perceptions were found that could serve to guide intervention development. Framework: The conceptual framework for this study was the Health Promotion Model (HPM). Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of the self-reported PA in female adolescents in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with the Health Promotion Model’s (HPM) cognitive and affective variables, including perceived barriers to PA, PA self-efficacy, enjoyment of PA, social support for PA, and commitment to PA.Research Question: What are the direct and indirect effects of the HPM’s cognitive and affective variables, including perceived barriers, self-efficacy, enjoyment, social support, and commitment, on PA of Saudi female adolescents? Sample and Setting: A random sample of 405 Saudi female students was recruited from 10 public intermediate and high schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Females who met the inclusion criteria completed surveys and participated in height and weight measurements at school. Results: The mean age of the female adolescents was 15.43 years. Approximately 25.3% of the female adolescents were overweight or obese. PA mean scores ranged from 1.00 to 4.17 with an average of 2.09 (SD = .66), which is considered to be a low to moderate level of PA. Commitment to PA partially mediated the relationships of perceived barriers to PA, PA self-efficacy, enjoyment of PA, and social support for PA with PA. PA self-efficacy had the strongest effect on PA, which contributed to 12.8% of the variance in the PA levels among Saudi female adolescents, followed by enjoyment (12.5%), social support (12.3%) and perceived barriers (12.1%). The entire model explained 17% of the variance in the PA levels among Saudi female adolescents; however, perceived barriers to PA were not supported in the entire model. Implications: This study indicates that Saudi female adolescents are in need of interventions to increase their PA. Lending some support for the HPM, the findings suggest that dealing with perceived barriers to PA and targeting PA self-efficacy, PA enjoyment, and social support for PA to enhance commitment to PA may be a fruitful approach in nursing interventions to increase PA among Saudi female adolescents. Therefore, information from this study can be used by nurses interested in developing interventions to help female adolescents in Saudi Arabia attain physically active lifestyles (Wright, Giger, Norris, & Suro, 2013).
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