Parkour as Health Promotion in Schools: A Qualitative Study Focusing on Aspects of Participation
Abstract
In this paper we highlight the potential role of parkour in school-based health promotion for
children and adolescents. The popularity of parkour has increased significantly in recent
years and has attracted a lot of new participants. Health promotion initiatives in schools face
challenges, when it comes to generating a high level of participation among children and
adolescents. Parkour has only sporadically been introduced to the school setting, and it is
therefore relevant to study whether parkour contains the elements that can generate a high
level of participation within health promotion activities in school. The paper reports on an
empirical study of how parkour generates different kinds of participation. The paper provides
health practitioners with important knowledge about why and how it is important to use
parkour in school health promotion in order to provide participatory conditions that create a
significant health promoting effect for all adolescents – not just for those who are already
healthy