Social determinants of the gender gap in recreational physical activity: a field study among middle-school adolescents in a conservative environment

Résumé fourni par la source

Gender inequality in recreational physical activity (RPA) represents one of the most consequential forms of social inequality in global health research, yet its social determinants in North African conservative environments remain poorly understood. Drawing on feminist Bourdieusian sociology and intersectionality theory frameworks rooted, in part, in Bourdieu's own foundational fieldwork in Algeria this study examines the social determinants of gender differences in RPA attitudes and participation among middle-school adolescents in the wilaya of Laghouat, Algeria: a semi-conservative interior region absent from the international sport sociology literature. Cross-sectional data were collected from 583 students using a validated 18-item RPA attitude scale alongside composite scales measuring Bourdieusian cultural, economic, and social capital. Hierarchical moderated regression tested whether each capital form moderated the gender–RPA attitude relationship. Female students held significantly less positive RPA attitudes than male students. Sport-specific participation was highly gender-differentiated: football was predominantly practised by male students, whereas basketball the sole activity conducted in female-only indoor school settings had substantially higher participation among female students. All three capital forms positively predicted RPA attitudes; cultural capital and social capital significantly moderated the gender gap, whereas economic capital did not. These findings, from the first large-scale empirical study of adolescent RPA in Algeria, call for gender-sensitive, class-aware, and family-engaged sport policy reform in Algeria and comparable MENA contexts.