Liking of Physical Education and Active Recess Among Chilean Schoolchildren: A National Population-Based Study of Participation Gaps and Reasons for Inactivity

Background/Objectives: Recess and physical education are complementary school-based opportunities for movement, yet national evidence on how students’ liking of physical education relates to active recess is scarce in Latin America. We examined the association between disliking physical education and inactive recess among Chilean students and described reported reasons for inactive recess. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the 2024 Chilean National Survey of Physical Activity and Sports Habits. The primary analysis included 3802 school-attending participants aged 5–17 years with valid responses to the liking of physical education and recess activity items. Inactive recess was defined as reporting no running/jumping, sport, or dance during recess. Modified Poisson regression with normalized survey weights and robust variance estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs), controlling for age, sex assigned at birth, urban/rural area, socioeconomic status, disability, and region. Region-stratified bootstrap inference used 2000 replicates. Results: Weighted active-recess prevalence was 75.8%. Adjusted inactive-recess prevalence was 18.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 16.0–20.4) among students who liked physical education and 56.9% (95% CI 50.3–63.6) among those who disliked it, an absolute difference of 38.7 percentage points (95% CI 31.6–45.8). Disliking physical education was associated with a prevalence of inactive recess approximately three times higher (aPR 3.09, 95% CI 2.61–3.68); the bootstrap CI was 2.61–3.69. Associations did not differ by sex or age group. Among 977 students with inactive recess, the most frequent reasons were lack of interest (40.3%) and absence of games, equipment, or a suitable place (29.1%). Conclusions: Disliking physical education was strongly associated with inactive recess, but temporality cannot be established. Enjoyable, inclusive physical education and better recess opportunities merit joint evaluation in school-based physical activity strategies.