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Physical activity (PA) has been associated with a multitude of beneficial mental and physical outcomes. It is well documented, however, that there are health disparities and inequities for segments of the population, especially as related to PA. Engagement of traditionally minoritized populations into research is essential for justice in health. We discuss a community engagement model that can be used for recruiting and retaining traditionally minoritized populations into PA research, and then we go into three major ethnic/racial groups in the United States: Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Background information of each group, cultural values that play a role in health for each of the groups, and research demonstrating how culture plays a role in the formation and implementation of PA interventions in these groups is presented.

Physical activity policy can play a crucial role in ensuring that individuals, communities, and societies can obtain the wide range of health benefits associated with regular physical activity participation. Policies such as Title IX, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and state physical education laws have all increased opportunities for millions of Americans to participate in physical activity. With that said, how policies are developed and implemented vary considerably. The purpose of this manuscript is to contrast an academic conceptual framework with a pragmatic approach for policy implementation. In an ideal world, polices would be developed from foundational knowledge, scaled up to community-level interventions, and implemented in a sequential fashion. However, policy implementation is a disorderly process that requires a practical methodology. The National Physical Activity Plan encompasses strategies and tactics across 10 key societal sectors—and highlights the disorderly process of policy implementation across the various sectors.

Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science can be described as the scientific study of the strategies and mechanisms by which scientific evidence is disseminated and implemented in community or clinical settings to improve outcomes for a specified population. This paper provides an overview of D&I science as it relates to health and physical activity promotion. It provides definitions and specifications for D&I strategies and an overview of the types of theories, models, and frameworks used to advance this work. Finally, this review demonstrated the need for physical activity researchers to (a) test relationships between changes in D&I explanatory constructs and D&I outcomes; (b) determine the utility of D&I strategies, based on explanatory theories, to improve intervention reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance; (c) develop strategies to take interventions to scale and reduce disparities; and (d) develop interventions and D&I strategies, in collaboration with those who would ultimately be responsible for implementation.

Physical activity is a health-protective factor that can reduce disease risk in later life. Designing interventions that increase physical activity participation are paramount but need to increase potency and reduce the time to effectiveness. This paper aims to outline one transdisciplinary, team science effort to increase behavioral intervention potency through the integration of the autonomous cognition model whereby data guide each decision in developing a school-based physical activity intervention. Examples of data collected by stage and a summary of potential action steps are provided.

Physical activity programs in school and community settings have the potential to foster positive youth development related to social and emotional learning. However, research findings and best practices that promote these outcomes are often not implemented in practice. The field of implementation science can help researchers understand and navigate the barriers to implementing what we know from research into policy and practice (i.e., to bridge the know-do gap). In this paper, after describing positive youth development, social emotional learning, and their application in physical activity settings, I share reflections from my engaged scholarship with the teaching personal and social responsibility model to illustrate ways my collaborators and I have tried to address the know-do gap. Lessons learned about ways that kinesiology researchers can actively support the implementation of our research in society are discussed.