ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1616483
Educators' Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing a School-Based Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Civic Engagement Intervention: A Qualitative Analysis
Provisionally accepted
Andrew Mcneely1
Alexandra Macmillan Uribe1Gabrielli T De Mello1Andres Herrero-Loza2Mahak Ali2Kaitlyn Nguyen2
Yetunde Olawuyi3
Chad Rethorst1
Rebecca Seguin-Fowler1
Jacob Szeszulski1*- 1Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States
- 2Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas, United States
- 3Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas, United States
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Strong Teens for Healthy Schools (STHS) is a middle school program that focuses on improving healthy eating habits, physical activity, and engages students in civic engagement projects to promote healthy environments within schools. To assess potential barriers and facilitators to implementing STHS, interviews with Texas Cooperative Extension staff (n=20) and middle school staff (n=15) were conducted prior to implementing the program to inform program delivery. Participants (89% female, 71% white, mean age 41±9.2 years old) reviewed sections of the curriculum and provided feedback in semi-structured interviews. Open inductive coding, followed by deductive categorization of codes within the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research framework, grouped responses into the five themes: (1) Trainings should emphasize using STHS in a structured setting and highlight the core components of the curriculum to ensure consistent delivery. (2) Variations in capabilities may affect how information is delivered by implementers, as well as how it is received by students. (3) Participants discussed how the physical infrastructure required for STHS could be a challenge in some school contexts. (4) The STHS curriculum received positive feedback for its design, relative advantage compared to other curricula, and evidence-base. (5) Local partners' attitudes and conditions may affect the adoption and implementation of STHS. Overall, participants supported implementation of the STHS but noted several potential challenges that could be addressed prior to implementation.
Keywords: implementation science, Exercise, healthy eating, School-based intervention, physical activity
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mcneely, Uribe, De Mello, Herrero-Loza, Ali, Nguyen, Olawuyi, Rethorst, Seguin-Fowler and Szeszulski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jacob Szeszulski, Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843, Texas, United States
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