Table 4.

Community (neighborhood, school) level barriers to physical activity and associated parental quotes

1. Lack of Trust in Proper Asthma Management in Schools	“I keep my children home and I administer [medications] to them myself, and every 4 hours I put them on the nebulizer depending on how they are…And these people do not do their jobs, so I will take my children home.” (Mother, 15) “It’s good that they have gym at the school. But I want that they have a limitation for the kids with asthma, too…I want the gym teachers know what to do in that moment with a kid with asthma…It would be nice that they take training.” (Mother,6) “If I’m not around and she’s at school and she is running too much…that worries me because what if I’m not there and she gets an asthma attack…The after school, I don’t think they know the signs,,, I forget what they said but it was something that they, they don’t have the experience or the knowledge, you know, like how to deal with that.” (Mother, 22)
2. Lack of School PA Facilities	“In school, we don’t have um gym the way we’re supposed to…Half the gym is either in the classroom if you’re lucky if the gym is open ‘cause we share it with another school…As I was growing up, we had a lunch room where you would eat and then go outside and play. Here we don’t have that. We basically you eat your lunch and you sit down.” (Mother, 10) “No, they can’t go outside cause they working in the yard again! They just fix the school yard and the kids don’t even get to play in it, now they working on the building.” (Mother, 23)
3. Unsafe Neighborhoods	“I don’t like the neighborhood park. And um, I mean, I live in the projects…Drugs, violence, shoot out. I don’t want her around that environment.” (Mother, 11) “The reason that we live in that community because is a building that we don’t pay that much rent. Is a project and then that’s the reality. Is sad but this is, that’s why I keep them by…home. They got toys and they got their TV to be able to play like that they don’t feel like going out. I know they need to exercise but also have to limit that because all the things that happens you know in the community over there…Yeah they shoot gun, you know, the teenagers are outside.” (Mother, 12) “There’s a park across the street. I let him go before with my neighbor’s daughter, but I’m not too comfortable because they’re not supervised…’Cause anything could happen.” (Mother, 2)
4. Cost of Community PA Programs	“He’s looking to do karate. And if I had the money for it now, I probably would sign him up for it, you know, if I could afford to do that.” (Mother, 5) “I want to get her into a dance class because she likes dancing a lot but I’m looking for something a little cheap because they are kind of expensive.” (Mother, 8)