There is an en­cour­ag­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy and in­creased phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty lev­els (Oz­turk 2023 et al). Phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty in­volves body move­ment brought about by skele­tal mus­cle con­trac­tion that us­es en­er­gy. In­creased phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty of­fers phys­i­cal, men­tal, so­cial, and emo­tion­al ben­e­fits through­out a per­son’s life­time (Posadz­ki 2020, et al).

Ac­cord­ing to Oz­turk 2023 et al, “Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is the com­pe­tence, con­fi­dence, and knowl­edge re­quired to be phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive through­out life. (As) a mul­ti­di­men­sion­al con­cept, it has phys­i­cal, so­cial, cog­ni­tive, and af­fec­tive do­mains, which have been po­si­tioned as a health and dis­ease de­ter­mi­nant. High lev­els of phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy may be as­so­ci­at­ed with bet­ter car­dio­vas­cu­lar fit­ness, mus­cle strength, mo­tor skills, and obe­si­ty. A per­son with high phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy can be more phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive, en­gage in var­i­ous phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties, and have a high­er lev­el of phys­i­cal fit­ness.”

Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy in­volves pos­sess­ing the com­pe­tence, con­fi­dence, and mo­ti­va­tion to par­tic­i­pate in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties in any en­vi­ron­ment to en­sure the over­all de­vel­op­ment of a healthy per­son. There­fore, de­vel­op­ing phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy in­volves learn­ing and ex­e­cut­ing move­ment skills con­fi­dent­ly, such as learn­ing the fun­da­men­tal skills of run­ning, jump­ing, kick­ing a ball, and div­ing from a young age. These skills can then be honed and ex­hib­it­ed in many en­vi­ron­ments. De­vel­op­ing phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy has a pos­i­tive phys­i­cal im­pact and al­lows for the de­vel­op­ment of es­sen­tial strate­gic life skills.

The im­por­tance of phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy can­not be over­stat­ed, es­pe­cial­ly as Trin­bag­o­ni­ans’ lifestyles be­come in­creas­ing­ly seden­tary, ei­ther in front of com­put­ers and/or tele­vi­sion screens or sit­ting for long hours in traf­fic. Seden­tary lifestyles and phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty, cou­pled with the growth of the fast-food in­dus­try, have paved the way for obe­si­ty and oth­er non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases such as car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases and di­a­betes. The out­come can be detri­men­tal to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions’ health and eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tions.

The Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment (MSCD), SPORTT, and the Min­istry of Health have been pro­mot­ing the de­vel­op­ment of a phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive cul­ture among the pop­u­la­tion, for ex­am­ple, through the TT Moves cam­paign and Pink Reign cam­paigns. How­ev­er, an es­sen­tial cog in the phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy and phys­i­cal ac­tive cul­ture wheel is the ab­sence of re­search da­ta that pro­vides in­sight in­to the em­pir­i­cal un­der­stand­ing of:

• What is hap­pen­ing on the ground

• What de­sired goals are be­ing achieved and oth­ers that are not

• Why goals are at­tained and oth­ers are not

• What must change to achieve de­sired out­comes

Re­search pro­vides an un­der­stand­ing of the phe­nom­e­non’s anato­my which will en­hance pol­i­cy and in­ter­ven­tion mech­a­nisms to achieve de­sired out­come.