Multiple distinct paths lead to Sporting & Exercising and Not exercising, and these differ between girls and boys. Paths to exercising and non-exercising can be multi-factorial in nature, where several factors must be jointly present to explain membership in a particular exercise-related cluster. Future research may wish to adopt a similar configurational approach to explore other high-priority activities in which adolescents do or do not participate to improve interventions and policies aimed at increasing adolescent participation in PE.
Gothilander et al. (2026) studied this question.