IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v15y2025i5p117-d1640658.html

Physical Activity and Sport in Acculturation Processes in Immigrant Women: A Systematic Review

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Blanco-Ayala

    (Physical Education and Sports Department, University of Seville, 41013 Seville, Spain)

  • Roshan Galvaan

    (Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa)

  • Jesús Fernández-Gavira

    (Physical Education and Sports Department, University of Seville, 41013 Seville, Spain)

Abstract

Acculturation is a key process in the adaptation of immigrant women to their host countries, influenced by social, cultural, and structural factors. Physical activity and sport have been identified as potential tools to facilitate this transition, promoting social inclusion and cultural adaptation. This systematic review, following the PRISMA guidelines and the Cochrane Handbook, analyzed empirical and conceptual studies published in English since 2000 from Scopus, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, and ERIC. Inclusion criteria encompassed studies examining the relationship between physical activity, sport, and acculturation in immigrant women, while excluding non-empirical research, studies focusing exclusively on men or children, and those published in languages other than English. A total of 17 studies met the eligibility criteria. Thematic analysis revealed four key dimensions: (1) the bidirectional relationship between acculturation and sport participation, (2) gender and cultural barriers, (3) socio-economic and structural determinants, and (4) the impact on health and psychosocial well-being. The review highlights the role of physical activity in fostering social capital and integration while identifying persistent barriers such as cultural norms, economic constraints, and policy limitations. Although findings support the positive impact of these activities, further research is needed to address intersectional challenges and structural inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Blanco-Ayala & Roshan Galvaan & Jesús Fernández-Gavira, 2025. "Physical Activity and Sport in Acculturation Processes in Immigrant Women: A Systematic Review," Societies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:117-:d:1640658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/5/117/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/5/117/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth F Schulz & Douglas G Altman & David Moher & for the CONSORT Group, 2010. "CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomised Trials," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-7, March.
    2. repec:sae:mrxval:v:31:y:1997:i:4:p:975-1008 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Juan Carlos Checa & Ángeles Arjona & Montserrat Monserrat & Darío Salguero, 2022. "Leisure Behavior of Young Immigrants in Andalusia (Spain): The Process of Acculturation through Physical Activities and Sport," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Salvador Angosto & Jerónimo García-Fernández & Irena Valantine & Moisés Grimaldi-Puyana, 2020. "The Intention to Use Fitness and Physical Activity Apps: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-25, August.
    5. David Moher & Alessandro Liberati & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Douglas G Altman & The PRISMA Group, 2009. "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-6, July.
    6. Evenson, Kelly R. & Sarmiento, Olga L. & Ayala, Guadalupe X., 2004. "Acculturation and physical activity among North Carolina Latina immigrants," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 2509-2522, December.
    7. Shawn D. Forde & Donna S. Lee & Cathy Mills & Wendy Frisby, 2015. "Moving towards social inclusion: Manager and staff perspectives on an award winning community sport and recreation program for immigrants," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 126-138, January.
    8. Bjerke, May Britt & Renger, Ralph, 2017. "Being smart about writing SMART objectives," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 125-127.
    9. Forde, Shawn D. & Lee, Donna S. & Mills, Cathy & Frisby, Wendy, 2015. "Moving towards social inclusion: Manager and staff perspectives on an award winning community sport and recreation program for immigrants," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 126-138.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salvador Angosto & Hyejin Bang & Gonzalo A. Bravo & Arturo Díaz-Suárez & José María López-Gullón, 2021. "Motivations and Future Intentions in Sport Event Volunteering: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Su Keng Tan & Wai Keung Leung & Alexander Tin Hong Tang & Roger A Zwahlen, 2017. "Effects of mandibular setback with or without maxillary advancement osteotomies on pharyngeal airways: An overview of systematic reviews," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, October.
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0035621 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jovana Kuzmanovic Pficer & Slobodan Dodic & Vojkan Lazic & Goran Trajkovic & Natasa Milic & Biljana Milicic, 2017. "Occlusal stabilization splint for patients with temporomandibular disorders: Meta-analysis of short and long term effects," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Clovis Mariano Faggion Jr & Yun-Chun Wu & Moritz Scheidgen & Yu-Kang Tu, 2015. "Effect of Risk of Bias on the Effect Size of Meta-Analytic Estimates in Randomized Controlled Trials in Periodontology and Implant Dentistry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-9, September.
    6. Salvador Angosto & Jerónimo García-Fernández & Irena Valantine & Moisés Grimaldi-Puyana, 2020. "The Intention to Use Fitness and Physical Activity Apps: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-25, August.
    7. Jing Cui & Wenmin Lin & Brian H May & Qiulan Luo & Christopher Worsnop & Anthony Lin Zhang & Xinfeng Guo & Chuanjian Lu & Yunying Li & Charlie C Xue, 2023. "Orally administered Chinese herbal therapy to assist post-surgical recovery for chronic rhinosinusitis—A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Libing Jiang & Shouyin Jiang & Mao Zhang & Zhongjun Zheng & Yuefeng Ma, 2014. "Albumin versus Other Fluids for Fluid Resuscitation in Patients with Sepsis: A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-21, December.
    9. Mahesh Shumsher Rughooputh & Rui Zeng & Ying Yao, 2015. "Protein Diet Restriction Slows Chronic Kidney Disease Progression in Non-Diabetic and in Type 1 Diabetic Patients, but Not in Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Using Glomerular Filtration Rate as a Surrogate," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Mathieu Marlier & Bram Constandt & Cleo Schyvinck & Thomas De Bock & Mathieu Winand & Annick Willem, 2020. "Bridge over Troubled Water: Linking Capacities of Sport and Non-Sport Organizations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 139-151.
    11. Laith Hussain-Alkhateeb & Tatiana Rivera Ramírez & Axel Kroeger & Ernesto Gozzer & Silvia Runge-Ranzinger, 2021. "Early warning systems (EWSs) for chikungunya, dengue, malaria, yellow fever, and Zika outbreaks: What is the evidence? A scoping review," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-25, September.
    12. repec:plo:pone00:0028437 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Shalin Lee Wan Fei & Khatijah L Abdullah, 2015. "Effect of turning vs. supine position under phototherapy on neonates with hyperbilirubinemia: a systematic review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(5-6), pages 672-682, March.
    14. repec:plo:pone00:0151073 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Savita Bakhshi & Alison E. While, 2013. "Health Professionals’ Alcohol-Related Professional Practices and the Relationship between Their Personal Alcohol Attitudes and Behavior and Professional Practices: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, December.
    16. Finkelstein, Eric A. & Bilger, Marcel & Baid, Drishti, 2019. "Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of incentives as a tool for prevention of non-communicable diseases: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 340-350.
    17. João Carlos Belloti & Aldo Okamura & Jordana Scheeren & Flávio Faloppa & Vinícius Ynoe de Moraes, 2019. "A systematic review of the quality of distal radius systematic reviews: Methodology and reporting assessment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, January.
    18. repec:osf:osfxxx:w5xj6_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Salvador Angosto & Jerónimo García-Fernández & Moisés Grimaldi-Puyana, 2023. "A systematic review of intention to use fitness apps (2020–2023)," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    20. Kevin Rudolf & Lea A. L. Dejonghe & Ingo Froböse & Florian Lammer & Lisa-Marie Rückel & Jessica Tetz & Andrea Schaller, 2019. "Effectiveness Studies in Health Promotion: A Review of the Methodological Quality of Studies Reporting Significant Effects on Physical Activity in Working Age Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, March.
    21. Vouzoulias Konstantinos & Koufioti Georgia & Kounios Athanasios & Vlachadi Maria, 2023. "The Inclusion of Sports Educational Activities in A Multicultural Educational Context. A Systematic Review of The Literature," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(4), pages 298-311, April.
    22. Jones, Gareth J. & Edwards, Michael B. & Bocarro, Jason N. & Bunds, Kyle S. & Smith, Jordan W., 2018. "Leveraging community sport organizations to promote community capacity: Strategic outcomes, challenges, and theoretical considerations," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 279-292.
    23. Taweewat Wiangkham & Joan Duda & Sayeed Haque & Mohammad Madi & Alison Rushton, 2015. "The Effectiveness of Conservative Management for Acute Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD) II: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    24. Abigail Stevely & Munyaradzi Dimairo & Susan Todd & Steven A Julious & Jonathan Nicholl & Daniel Hind & Cindy L Cooper, 2015. "An Investigation of the Shortcomings of the CONSORT 2010 Statement for the Reporting of Group Sequential Randomised Controlled Trials: A Methodological Systematic Review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:117-:d:1640658. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.