Kahan David, McKenzie Thomas L, Satnick Maya
School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, San Diego State University, ENS Building 315, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-7251 USA.
Contemp Jew. 2021;41(2):555-579. doi: 10.1007/s12397-021-09372-4. Epub 2021 May 11.
Faith-based organizations are entities recommended to promote and provide health-related physical activity to youth. Meanwhile, religious institutions-including synagogues-typically use diverse media, including websites, bulletins/newsletters, and calendars to inform current and potential members about both general (e.g., theological) and specific practical messages (e.g., about the occurrence of services, meetings, and programs). Given the historical role synagogue centers played in the early- to mid-twentieth century in providing members recreational and sport programming, we were interested to know what physical activities synagogues currently advertise through the aforementioned media. From January through May 2019, we completed a line-by-line analysis of the public websites of a large nationally representative sample of synagogues ( = 1383 sites from 337 U.S. cities in 39 states) to assess content (including links to bulletins/newsletters and calendars) related to child and adolescent physical activity. Only 35.4% of the sampled websites used these media to mention that their synagogue provided even a single physical activity program/event. Thus, most synagogues either (a) did not provide physical activity programs for children and adolescents, or (b) neglected to use online platforms to promote engagement in them. We found 938 distinct programs/events and 1667 specific activities across synagogue websites that mentioned at least one physical activity. Programs by type and proportion (i.e., percentage of programs overall) included youth group (39.1%), preschool (26.9%), youth worship (18.0%), and youth education (16.0%). We situate our findings by explicating past and current functions of synagogues related to the provision of youth programming. Future research should examine the beliefs that synagogue rabbis and media gatekeepers hold toward physical activity in general and youth physical activity specifically. Youths should also be queried as to what role synagogue programming can/should play in promoting/providing and accommodating their physical activity needs and preferences.
基于信仰的组织是被推荐来促进并为青少年提供与健康相关的体育活动的实体。同时，宗教机构——包括犹太教堂——通常使用多种媒体，如网站、公告/时事通讯和日历，来向现有成员和潜在成员传达一般信息（如神学方面的）以及特定的实用信息（如关于服务、会议和活动的举办情况）。鉴于犹太教堂中心在20世纪上半叶为成员提供娱乐和体育项目所发挥的历史作用，我们很想知道犹太教堂目前通过上述媒体宣传哪些体育活动。在2019年1月至5月期间，我们对一个具有全国代表性的大型犹太教堂样本（来自39个州337个美国城市的1383个网站）的公开网站进行了逐行分析，以评估与儿童和青少年体育活动相关的内容（包括指向公告/时事通讯和日历的链接）。在抽样的网站中，只有35.4%使用这些媒体提及他们的犹太教堂提供哪怕一项体育活动项目/活动。因此，大多数犹太教堂要么（a）没有为儿童和青少年提供体育活动项目，要么（b）忽视利用在线平台来促进人们参与这些项目。我们在犹太教堂网站上发现了938个不同的项目/活动以及1667项提及至少一项体育活动的具体活动。按类型和比例（即占总体项目的百分比）划分的项目包括青年团体（39.1%）、学前班（26.9%）、青年礼拜（18.0%）和青年教育（16.0%）。我们通过阐述犹太教堂过去和当前与提供青年项目相关的功能来定位我们的研究结果。未来的研究应该考察犹太教堂的拉比和媒体把关人对一般体育活动，特别是青少年体育活动的看法。还应该询问青少年犹太教堂项目在促进/提供和满足他们的体育活动需求及偏好方面可以/应该发挥什么作用。
