Brain breaks is a physical activity (PA) video designed for school settings that is used to stimulate student’s health and learning. The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of brain breaks on motives of participation in PA among primary school children in Malaysia. Purposive sampling was used to divide 159 male and 176 female students aged 10 to 11 years old, mean (standard deviation (SD)) = 10.51 (0.50), from two schools in Kelantan, Malaysia into intervention (n = 183) and control (n = 152) groups. Students undertook brain breaks activities on school days (five minutes per session) spread out for a period of four months. Mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the students’ motives of participation in PA for pre-, mid-, and post-tests using the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale-Youth-Malay (PALMS-Y-M). Mixed factorial ANOVA showed significant changes in enjoyment, F(2, 392) = 8.720, p-value (ηp2) = 0.001 (0.043); competitiveness, F(2, 195) = 4.364, p-value (ηp2) = 0.014 (0.043); appearance, F(2, 392) = 5.709, p-value (ηp2) = 0.004 (0.028); and psychological condition, F(2, 392) = 4.376, p-value (ηp2) = 0.013 (0.022), whereas mastery, affiliation, and physical condition were not significant (p < 0.05). Further post-hoc analysis revealed a significant downward trend in the control group (p < 0.05). Brain breaks is successful in maintaining students’ motives for PA in four of the seven factors.

AIM: Physical activity is known for its benefits to improve cognitive functions such as sustained attention. The study aimed to conduct a systematic review on the effects of physical activity on sustained attention. METHODS: Literature search was conducted using databases from Scopus, PubMed, ResearchGate, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. The date of these published articles ranged from January 2010 to August 2018. RESULTS: A total of thirteen studies using the longitudinal design was selected to be part of this review. Most studies showed positive relationships between physical activity and sustained attention. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies may consider a longitudinal study design to study the effect of physical activity on sustained attention in prolonged time; as well as the corresponding affect with gender, age, motivation and to investigate the relationship between physical activities together with other possible factors that can indirectly affect sustained attention.

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Brain Breaks Physical Activity Solutions (BBPAS) is a web-based structured physical activity (PA) video that is specifically designed for school settings and can stimulate a student’s health and learning. The purpose of this study is to measure the effect of BBPAS on the stages of change, decisional balance, processes of change, self-efficacy and leisure-time exercise among Malay ethnic primary school children. A validated Malay version of three of the five constructs was derived with sound validity and was used in the present study. A total of 159 male and 163 female children aged 10 to 11 years old, mean (SD) = 10.53 (0.50), were recruited from two schools in Kelantan, Malaysia. Purposive sampling was used to divide the children into intervention (n = 177) and control (n = 145) groups. Children in the intervention group underwent BBPAS activity for an accumulated 30 min per week, while children in the control group were not involved in the BBPAS intervention. Mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the effect of BBPAS on the study variables. A mixed ANOVA showed significant changes (time effect) on cognitive process, F(1, 320) = 5.768, p-value = 0.017; behavioural process, F(1, 313) = 5.736, p-value = 0.017; and internal feeling, F(1, 312) = 6.050, p-value = 0.014. There was also a significant difference between groups on cons, F(1, 316) = 7.504, p-value = 0.007. A significant interaction effect was observed for stages of change, F(1, 319) = 7.861, p-value = 0.005; pros, F(1, 316) = 31.311, p-value = 0.001; internal feeling, F(1, 312) = 4.692, p-value = 0.031; and behavioural process, F(1, 313) = 7.312, p-value = 0.007. In conclusion, BBPAS was successful in improving four of the five constructs, and thus, should be recommended to be used in schools throughout Malaysia.

Introduction The transtheoretical model (TTM) is an integrative model of intentional change consisting of stages of change, processes of change, decisional balance and self-efficacy. This study aimed at validating the TTM questionnaires on physical activity for Malaysian children using confirmatory factor analysis. Methods The participants were 381 Malay students (188 male; 193 female), aged 10–12 years old, with a mean age of 10.94 (SD = 0.81). The original version of the TTM was translated into the Malay language using forward and backward translation. Certain phrases were adapted based on the local culture and vocabulary suitable for primary school students. Results The final measurement models and their fit indices were: processes of change (CFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.925, SRMR = 0.040, RMSEA = 0.030); decisional balance (CFI = 0.897, TLI = 0.864, SRMR = 0.045, RMSEA = 0.038); and self-efficacy (CFI = 0.934, TLI = 0.915, SRMR = 0.042, RMSEA = 0.032). Conclusion Care must be taken when using the TTM with children, as it has been prevalently validated with adults. The final version of the TTM questionnaire for Malay primary school children had 24 items for process of changes, 13 items for self-efficacy and 10 items for decisional balance.