The relationship between physical activity self-efficacy and participation in vigorous physical activity by high school students is examined in this article. Self-efficacy is hypothesized to be positively related to participation in three settings (physical education class, other school-related activities, and outside of school). The effects of age, gender, perceived barriers, and actual barriers are also examined. The sample consists of 1,041 grade 9 and 11 students from a large Metropolitan Toronto school board. Factors derived from a previous (factor) analysis were used to examine the effects of self-efficacy, perceived barriers, and life strain (an actual barrier). The results of multiple regression analysis indicate that physical activity self-efficacy, despite external barriers (but not internal barriers), is predictive of physical activity participation in the hypothesized direction. Other results show consistent age and gender effects on physical activity participation and some support for the hypothesized relationship between perceived barriers and participation.
Background:The decline in physical activity during adolescence is a key public health concern. This comparative study assesses whether the age-related decline in physical activity among high school students occurs similarly in the United States (US) and Ontario, whether the decline in physical activity is steady throughout the age range, or whether any declines are age-specific.Methods: Data are based on self-reports of 9 th -to 12 th -graders derived from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (n=13,503) and the 2001 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey (n=1,322). Physical activity is measured by the number of days of vigorous physical activity during the past 7 days.
Results:In both samples, there was a dominant and steady decline in physical activity between ages 14 and 18 years. The number of activity days was higher in the US than in Ontario holding constant age and sex. However, a significant sample-by-age interaction showed that the decline in the percentage of US students reporting 3 or more physical activity days was greater than it was in Ontario.Conclusions: While the pattern of decline was shown to be similar, the decline was stronger among US adolescents. Future research should examine additional factors influencing the decline in activity and the optimal timing of programs to reduce the decline.
BackgroundSchool-based structured opportunities for physical activity can provide health-related benefits to children and youth, and contribute to international guidelines recommending 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. In 2005, the Ministry of Education in Ontario, Canada, released the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy requiring school boards to “ensure that all elementary students, including students with special needs, have a minimum of twenty minutes of sustained MVPA each school day during instructional time”. This paper reports on the first provincial study evaluating implementation fidelity to the DPA policy in Ontario elementary schools and classrooms. Using an adapted conceptual framework, the study also examined associations between implementation of DPA and a number of predictors in each of these respective settings.MethodsSeparate cross-sectional online surveys were conducted in 2014 with Ontario elementary school administrators and classroom teachers, based on a representative random sample of schools and classrooms. An implementation fidelity score was developed based on six required components of the DPA policy. Other survey items measured potential predictors of implementation at the school and classroom levels. Descriptive analyses included frequency distributions of implementation fidelity and predictor variables. Bivariate analyses examining associations between implementation and predictors included binary logistic regression for school level data and generalized linear mixed models for classroom level data, in order to adjust for school-level clustering effects.ResultsAmong administrators, 61.4 % reported implementation fidelity to the policy at the school level, while 50.0 % of teachers reported fidelity at the classroom level. Several factors were found to be significantly associated with implementation fidelity in both school and classroom settings including: awareness of policy requirements; scheduling; monitoring; use of resources and supports; perception that the policy is realistic and achievable; and specific barriers to implementation.ConclusionsFindings from the surveys indicate incomplete policy implementation and a number of factors significantly associated with implementation fidelity. The results indicate a number of important implications for policy, practice and further research, including the need for additional research to monitor implementation and its predictors, and assess the impacts of study recommendations and subsequent outcomes of a reinvigorated DPA moving forward.
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