Role of Resilience in Moderating the Association Between Perceived Neighborhood Safety and Adolescent Physical Activity

Abstract

Community Summary: Not every teen lives in a neighborhood that feels safe, yet some stay active anyway. We asked whether resilience, meaning the ability to cope with and bounce back from hard times, helps explain why. In summer 2025, 41 Central Texas students ages 11 to 15 answered questions about resilience and neighborhood safety and wore an activity tracker for a week. Worries about crime in the neighborhood were linked with being less likely to reach the recommended 60 minutes of daily activity, but this link was weaker for teens with higher resilience. Put simply, more resilient teens seemed better able to stay active even when they had safety concerns. The results for traffic safety were less clear. Building teens’ coping skills and making neighborhoods safer may both help teens stay active.

Abstract

Objective: Adolescent physical activity (PA) is vital for long-term health, yet many youth fail to meet federal recommendations (60 minutes per day). Resilience, the ability to cope or recover quickly from difficulties or setbacks, may help youth maintain PA despite unsupportive environments, but research on its role in moderating the association between neighborhood safety perceptions and PA participation is limited.

Methods: Data for this study were collected from 41 youth, aged 11–15, attending middle schools in the Central Texas region. Resilience was assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 in a baseline survey. Neighborhood safety perceptions were measured using the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale for Youth, specifically the traffic safety and crime safety domains. PA was measured over one week using the Actigraph LEAP accelerometer. Generalized estimating equations and multilevel modeling (days nested within participants) were used to examine main effects of neighborhood safety on PA outcomes and test whether resilience moderated these relationships, controlling for age and sex.

Results: Perceptions of safety from crime was significantly associated with meeting PA guidelines (β=1.50,p<.01). Resilience significantly moderated the crime safety-PA relationship (β=0.14,p=.04), suggesting that PA among more resilient adolescents may be less affected by crime safety concerns. Paradoxically, perceptions of traffic safety was negatively associated with meeting PA recommendations (β=-0.98,p<.001), indicating that adolescents with greater traffic safety concerns were more likely to meet PA guidelines. No significant moderation was found for traffic safety concerns (p=.95).

Conclusions: Resilience may serve as a protective factor, enabling adolescents to overcome environmental barriers to PA, particularly when they perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe from crime. This research suggests the importance of identifying resilience factors alongside improving neighborhood safety to promote PA, as resilient youth may be maintaining PA despite crime safety concerns.

Jeong-Hui Park

Assistant Professor University of Oklahoma

Jeong-Hui Park, PhD, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the University of Oklahoma, following her doctoral training at Texas A&M University and postdoctoral research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Veronika Croan

PhD Student - Colorado State University

Veronika is currently a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Colorado State University under the mentorship of Dr. Reagan Miller-Chagnon.