Self-assessment of physical fitness in adolescents

Abstract

Background: Physical fitness is an important indicator of the current and future health condition in adolescents. In comparison with institutional testing, self-assessment of physical fitness offers a number of benefits, including minimization or elimination of possible negative experience with inter-individual comparison in the context of motor diagnostics. The main objective of this paper is to determine the distribution normality of the resulting data and the intersexual differences in self-assessment of physical fitness using selected test items of the INDARES battery in adolescents. Methods: The study involved a total of 626 adolescents (345 boys and 281 girls) aged 11 to 19 years (14.56 ± 1.95 years) from selected cities in the Czech Republic. The participants performed self-testing of physical fitness by means of selected motor tests (push-ups, modified curl-ups, V-sit and reach and shoulder stretch) from the INDARES test battery. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the distribution normality of the self-testing data; the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the significance of inter-sexual differences in the average self-testing results. Results: The results showed normal data distribution in most motor tests except the push-up motor test (in boys older than 15 years normality was confirmed). The analysis confirmed the published findings concerning significantly better outcomes of flexibility in girls compared with boys. Conclusion: The present study suggests that the results of self-testing roughly correspond with the published findings based on institutional physical fitness assessment.

Student health-related fitness testing in school-based physical education: Strategies for student self-testing using technology

“…However, the first article regarding fitness self-testing was published about 25 years ago (Knapik et al, 1992). Moving forward, research was nonexistent for 12 years (Corbin, 2004; Mikkelsson et al, 2005; Morgan et al, 2004), then, increased more recently (Graser et al, 2011; Huotari et al, 2009; Rubín et al, 2017). These studies concluded that: (a) HRF self-testing skills were important to students (Corbin, 2004) and could make students feel successful (Morgan et al, 2004); (b) students had positive perceptions of HRF testing, they understood the testing purpose of HRF testing, and made connections between the test results and their personal health (Graser et al, 2011); and (c) the sixth graders in Finland were able to accurately self-test their HRF (Huotari et al, 2009) while Rubín et al (2017) reported that 11–19 year old students in the Czech Republic could estimate their fitness well via self-testing.…”

“…With the development of students’ self-testing skills, students may better understand HRF and this will likely have an effect on students’ negative attitudes toward fitness testing (Corbin, 2004; Graser et al, 2011; Rubín et al, 2017). Graser et al (2011) conducted a qualitative study using a written questionnaire, interviews, and field notes to examine fifth and sixth grade students’ perceptions of their experience participating in the Fitnessgram test organized in a self-testing format.…”

“…Moreover, Morgan et al (2004) explained that when students self-test their HRF it could enable all students to benefit from the educational process of fitness testing, as there is potential for them to feel successful and acquire knowledge and skills in order to “make important decisions about physical activity and health in the future” (Morgan et al, 2004: 22). Therefore, the use of fitness self-testing provides students an alternative way of fitness testing that can aid them in learning fitness testing knowledge and skills, and understand the purposes of each testing component (Knapik et al, 1992; Morgan et al, 2004; Rubín et al, 2017). Lastly, Graser et al (2011) explained that with the improvement on fitness testing attitudes, students' fitness testing performance may likely improve as well.…”

“…While self-testing can be implemented in various populations such as children, adolescents, and adults (Knapik et al, 2007; Mikkelsson et al, 2005; Rubín et al, 2017), based on the purpose of the current project, previous research that focused on K-16 students was examined. As a result, only a few studies were seen, with research used only in class settings through the use of stations (Graser et al, 2011; Morgan et al, 2004; Rubín et al, 2017). For example, Morgan et al (2004) presented a personalized fitness self-testing programme that was employed in a large urban school district in the southwestern US.…”

“…PE teachers became facilitators during the tests. Rubín et al (2017) followed the same implementation procedure (i.e. using stations in PE settings) suggested by Morgan et al (2004).…”