Effectiveness of School‐Initiated Physical Activity Program on Secondary School Students' Physical Activity Participation

Abstract

Gråstén, Arto Students' physical activity, physical education enjoyment, and motivational determinants through a three-year school-initiated program Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2014, 12 p. (+ included articles) (Studies in Sport, Physical Education, and Health ISSN 0356-1070; 205) ISBN 978-951-39-5713-1 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5714-8 (PDF) Finnish abstract Diss.Patterns of physical activity in adulthood are often established during adolescence, making this an important period for promoting physical activity. To address this, the Sotkamo Physical Activity as Civil Skill Program 2010-2014 was implemented to increase Grade 5 to 9 students' physical activity on a daily basis. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of program on students' physical activity and enjoyment. Furthermore, the relationship between motivational climate and enjoyment, and the percentages of students who engaged in 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on the daily basis were examined.The study comprised 847 students (422 girls, 425 boys) at the age of 12 to 14 years from two school districts, North-East and Central Finland. The program was conducted across three school years including four measurement phases. The dependent variables were self-reported and objectively measured physical activity, and physical education enjoyment. Motivational climate, goal orientation, perceived physical competence, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, expectancy beliefs, subjective task values, and out-of-school physical activity were independent variables. Background variables were gender, grade, duration of treatments, and school district.The program including task-involving climate and physical school environment treatment was effective in order to prohibit declining levels of students' physical activity. Students' enjoyment sustained at the same level across the program. Physically active secondary school students valued physical education classes more important than less active students. Furthermore, secondary school boys engaged in more moderate to vigorous physical activity in physical education than girls. In contrast, girls were involved in more out-of-school activity than boys. The major cause of concern arising from the current findings was that girls engaged in up to 26.2% and boys 33.6% of their weekly moderate to vigorous physical activity during only two 45-minute physical education classes. The program increased the proportion of physically active students, the latest measurement revealed that 24% of girls and 33% of boys met the current guidelines.Taken together, increased opportunities for school day physical activities have the potential to affect large number of students and are an efficient strategy for promoting regular physical activity. A better understanding of the role of motivational climate may assist efforts to promote children's and adolescents' perceived physical competence, intrinsic motivation, and enjoyment in the school physical education setting.Keywords: physical activity, enjoyme...

The Role of Ethnicity in School‐Based Obesity Intervention for School‐Aged Children: A Pilot Evaluation

“…More specifically, school‐based obesity preventions provide a particularly practical approach, as children spend most waking hours in school and can be engaged in before‐ and after‐school activities designed to fill the time when parents may be working . Although school‐based interventions that focus on high weight groups (secondary prevention/intervention) show modest improvements in reducing overweight in children, those that have not specifically targeted overweight children (primary prevention) have shown mixed results . Because programs involving physical activity and nutrition education together have shown more promising results than either aspect alone, the majority of recent school‐based obesity interventions have adopted this approach …”

“…16 Although school-based interventions that focus on high weight groups (secondary prevention/intervention) show modest improvements in reducing overweight in children, [17][18][19] those that have not specifically targeted overweight children (primary prevention) have shown mixed results. 18,[20][21][22] Because programs involving physical activity and nutrition education together have shown more promising results than either aspect alone, the majority of recent school-based obesity interventions have adopted this approach. 23,24 Despite surface similarities in curricula, many school-based interventions in the United States have shown discrepant findings.…”

The Patterns of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity and Physical Education Enjoyment Through a 2‐Year School‐Based Program

“…The results showed that the program was ineffective in enhancing children's total MVPA across 2 years. This was not expected, since the particular program was effective in increasing middle school students' MVPA across 1 school year . Several previous school‐based interventions have also been effective in promoting students' MVPA .…”

“…Based on Ames, 2 types of motivational climate are suggested to exist: a task‐involving climate (psychological climate that supports self‐referenced learning and effort) and an ego‐involving climate (supports normative evaluation, such as competition and defeating others) . Previous studies have revealed that task‐involving climate in school PE correlated with increased MVPA engagement and PE enjoyment, whereas an ego‐involving climate in PE has shown either to uncorrelate with PE enjoyment and MVPA or correlate with low levels of enjoyment . The recent meta‐analysis examining the effectiveness of motivational climate interventions in PE showed task‐involving interventions to have small to moderate effects in enhancing school students' affective (enjoyment), behavioral (MVPA), and cognitive (knowledge) outcomes .…”

Effects of School-Based Physical Activity Program on Students’ Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity and Perceptions of Physical Competence

“…[15][16][17] In contrast, ego-involving climate in PE has shown either a neglible correlation 13 or negative correlation with physical competence. 15 Previous intervention studies in PE contexts demonstrated that students' perceived competence towards physical activity increased when emphasizing task-involving teaching practices.…”