Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The disenfranchising effects of colonial practices have deprived Aboriginal youth from participating fully in physical activity (PA), preventing them from achieving a balanced state of health. Although research has demonstrated a link between the built environment and PA, understanding this relationship from an Aboriginal perspective is important when considering health disparities between Aboriginal peoples and the general population. My Master's project is an ancillary study to an ongoing CIHR-funded project (2012-2015) that is evaluating Active Circle programming and its effect on positive youth development. As part of the Active Circle project, photovoice will be used to understand how youth from 10 urban and rural communities perceive the quality of PA opportunities in their community. Photovoice is a participatory research method that engages participants to take pictures of their community in a way that allows them to share personally meaningful dialogue about community issues. For my project, I will use the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA), an established built environment assessment tool, to assess the physical environment in rural Aboriginal communities (about 4-5 communities) participating in the Active Circle study. The RALA assesses physical environment features that affect PA in rural communities. I will conduct a quantitative analysis of RALA outcomes and use the photovoice results to determine what elements are missing for understanding the built environment and its effect on PA from an Aboriginal perspective. The revised tool will then be validated within the Active Circle project. The results of my study will increase our understanding of the relationship between the built environment and PA. This will help reduce health disparities, such as higher rates of type II diabetes, among Aboriginal peoples. My project will also provide practitioners with a tool to assess the built environment of Aboriginal communities in a culturally meaningful way.