Movement Behaviors Profiles and Their Transition Among Brazilian Adolescents Before and After a School Year

Background Time spent in physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and sleep has distinct effects on health and may change across adolescence.Purpose To identify movement behavior (MB) profiles among adolescents and examine changes in profiles membership over one school year.Methods Students, part of the Movimente Program, self-reported time spent on sports and non-sports PA, recreational screen time (e.g. smartphone), and sleep. Latent transition analysis identified behavioral profiles and assessed membership transition.Results The sample included 609 adolescents (52.9% girls; age ± sd: 13.0 ± 1.01). Five profiles emerged: (1) “Inactive and unplugged” (n = 144; 23.6%), (2) “Sport practitioners” (n = 48; 7.9%), (3) “Smartphone users” (n = 230; 37.8%), (4) “Gamers” (n = 160; 19.0%), (5) “Non-sport Movers” (n = 71; 11.7%). Most adolescents (n = 458; 75.2%) remained in the same profile over time. A higher number of adolescents transitioned to profile (3) “Smartphone users” (n = 46) and profile (4) “Gamers” (n = 36).Conclusions Profiles reflected a blend of healthy and unhealthy behaviors, underscoring the complexity of MB patterns.Translation to Health Education Practice This study assists Health Educators in designing tailored interventions based on adolescents’ behavior trajectories, allowing them to target the behaviors most in need of change and ensuring school-based interventions are relevant, engaging, and effective.