Adolescent girls and physical activity in public spaces: insights from the city of Antwerp

Physical activity in adolescence is a key determinant of long-term health, yet teenage girls remain consistently less active than boys. Urban public spaces play a central role in facilitating everyday opportunities for physical activity, from informal play to organised sport. However, these spaces are not equally accessible or welcoming to all. They are sites where gendered hierarchies and norms surface, but also where other intersecting structures of inequality — such as socioeconomic background, migration status, dis/ability, and religion — shape who feels entitled to participate and who does not. This study explores how different factors intersect to influence teenage girls’ participation in physical activity in the urban areas of Antwerpen-Noord and Borgerhout. Based on 32 interviews with policymakers, youth workers, and local organisations, we apply an adapted socio-ecological framework to analyse the interplay of individual, sociocultural, built environment, and policy dimensions. The findings show how political choices such as disinvestment in youth services limit access to activities, while the absence of inclusive design in the built environment reinforce these inequalities. At the sociocultural level, gender stereotypes shape expectations about who belongs in public space, which in turn feeds into individual-level concerns about body image amongst adolescent girls. These intersecting barriers show how physical activity opportunities are mediated not only by individual factors but by systemic forms of exclusion embedded in the urban fabric. To counter this, inclusive policies and participatory approaches to
urban planning are needed to create public spaces that actively support girls’ engagement in physical activity and their health and wellbeing.