A health promoting leisure time for young teenage girls : results from a focusgroup study in Sweden

Background An action research project was initiated in order to explore young teenage girls’ opinions of leisure time and activities and initiate health promoting activity groups for girls age 13-16 in two municipalities in the south of Swed Study design The project started with a focus group study that explored girls’ opinions about leisure time and activities. Sample size and composition A total of fifteen semi structured focusgroup interviews were conducted in February-April 2011. A total of 110 girls, age 13-16, were participating in the study. A combination of a purpose fold selection strategy and randomisation was used for facilitating transferability of the results. Analysis The results were analysed through a tape based qualitative content analysis that focused on the manifest content of the interviews. Results The findings showed that the girls wanted their leisure time to be characterised by a variety of different activities. Activities were often related to a combination of the social, physical and psychological dimension of health. The psychological dimension was associated with activity related positive experiences and emotions.Conclusions Health promoting activity groups needs to be implemented with support from all the three dimensions of health and characterised by a variety of different activities