The Impact of Gymnastics on Children’s Physical Self-Concept and Movement Skill Development in Primary Schools

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-week gymnastics curriculum on children’s movement competence and their physical self-concept. There were 113 children (46% girls, 49% intervention) with a mean age of 9.4 years (SD = 1.8) that participated. Intervention children underwent 8 weeks of gymnastics and the comparison group continued with their standard curriculum. Age was a significant co-variate, a separate analysis was conducted on the lower (grades 2 and 4) and upper (grade 6) groups. The lower age group showed significant improvement in favor of the gymnastic group in fundamental movement skills. The upper age group showed a significant improvement for the control group in general body coordination and fundamental movement skills. For all grades, the physical self-concept showed a significant main effect in favor of the gymnastics group. The gymnastics intervention was found to be of particular benefit for developing children’s movement competence and physical self-concept in younger children.     

Research on China＇s Private Entrepreneurs＇ Physical Activity Level and Amount of Physical Activity

以中国义乌小商品城287名民营企业家为例,以体力活动阶段量表、国际体力活动量表（短卷）为评估工具,探讨民营企业家体力活动阶段分布特征,体力活动量及阶段分布与体力活动量的相关性。结果显示,民营企业家阶段分布特征明显,体力活动量较低,不同体力活动阶段的体力活动量有差异。     

Parent Support for Children’s Physical Activity: A Qualitative Investigation of Barriers and Strategies

Purpose: Parents play an important role in supporting children’s physical activity (PA) behavior. Parent PA support is a behavior unto itself that has been examined within the framework of an adapted theory of planned behavior (TPB). The primary purpose of this research was to identify key barriers to parent PA support to understand perceptions of control in relation to parent PA support. The second purpose of this research was to identify potential strategies to enhance parent PA support via enhanced perceived behavioral control. Method: Focus groups were conducted with parents (N = 21) of children aged 5 to 11 years old. A deductive content analysis was employed to analyze the data guided by an adapted TPB. Results: Themes related to barriers included parents’ motivation, affective experiences in providing PA support, and control factors (e.g., cost, time, safety concerns, screen). Themes related to potential strategies included opportunities for participation and improved affective experiences for parents, community parenting, and self-regulatory strategies. Conclusion: The identification of specific barriers to parent PA support can guide the development of interventions to facilitate parent PA support. Informational, programming, and self-regulatory training interventions may be useful in enhancing parent support.     

A Sport Education Fitness Season’s Impact on Students’ Fitness Levels,Knowledge, and In-Class Physical Activity

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a sport education season of fitness could provide students with recommended levels of in-class moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) while also increasing students’ fitness knowledge and fitness achievement. Method: One hundred and sixty-six 5th-grade students (76 boys, 90 girls) participated in a 20-lesson season called “CrossFit Challenge” during a 4-week period. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run, push-ups, and curl-ups tests of the FITNESSGRAM® were used to assess fitness at pretest and posttest, while fitness knowledge was assessed through a validated, grade-appropriate test of health-related fitness knowledge (HRF). Physical activity was measured with Actigraph GT3X triaxial accelerometers. Results: Results indicated a significant time effect for all fitness tests and the knowledge test. Across the entire season, the students spent an average of 54.5% of lesson time engaged in MVPA, irrespective of the type of lesson (instruction, free practice, or competition). Conclusions: The results suggest that configuring the key principles of sport education within a unit of fitness is an efficient model for providing students with the opportunity to improve fitness skill and HRF knowledge while attaining recommended levels of MVPA.     

Individual Differences Influencing Immediate Effects of Internal and External Focus Instructions on Children’s Motor Performance

Purpose: A large pool of evidence supports the beneficial effect of an external focus of attention on motor skill performance in adults. In children, this effect has been studied less and results are inconclusive. Importantly, individual differences are often not taken into account. We investigated the role of working memory, conscious motor control, and task-specific focus preferences on performance with an internal and external focus of attention in children. Methods: Twenty-five children practiced a golf putting task in both an internal focus condition and external focus condition. Performance was defined as the average distance toward the hole in 3 blocks of 10 trials. Task-specific focus preference was determined by asking how much effort it took to apply the instruction in each condition. In addition, working memory capacity and conscious motor control were assessed. Results: Children improved performance in both the internal focus condition and external focus condition (?_p² = .47), with no difference between conditions (?_p² = .01). Task-specific focus preference was the only factor moderately related to the difference between performance with an internal focus and performance with an external focus (r = .56), indicating better performance for the preferred instruction in Block 3. Conclusion: Children can benefit from instruction with both an internal and external focus of attention to improve short-term motor performance. Individual, task-specific focus preference influenced the effect of the instructions, with children performing better with their preferred focus. The results highlight that individual differences are a key factor in the effectiveness in children’s motor performance. The precise mechanisms underpinning this effect warrant further research.     

Academic-Based and Aerobic-Only Movement Breaks: Are There Differential Effects on Physical Activity and Achievement?

Purpose: This study investigated the academic achievement and physical activity differences between types of activity breaks implemented in elementary school classrooms. This study evaluated whether there was a difference between the impact of purely aerobic-based movement breaks and the impact of academic-based breaks on children’s academic achievement outcomes. Method: Participants included 460 children in 3rd grade through 5th grade at 4 elementary schools. There were 176 children in the schools that engaged in academic-based breaks and 284 in the schools that engaged in aerobic-only breaks. Schools were randomly assigned at the school level to implement either aerobic movement breaks with academic content infused within the breaks (“academic-based breaks”) or aerobic-only movement breaks without the addition of academic material (“aerobic-only breaks”) for approximately 10 min of activity per day. Math and reading achievement as well as children’s step counts were measured before and after the intervention. A mixed-effects (multilevel-growth) model, in which the repeated measures of individuals nested within a classroom are analyzed, was used to answer all posited research questions. Results: Small to moderate effect sizes (ES) indicating gains in reading achievement (ES = .13) and steps (ES = .33) were found for classrooms that used aerobic-only movement breaks compared with those that used academic-based breaks. Conclusions: The type of movement breaks that are implemented in classrooms may have differential outcomes for children’s achievement and activity levels. Results from the present study indicate that children who were given aerobic-only movement breaks had slightly larger gains in reading achievement and physical activity levels than children who were given academic-based breaks.     

What Are the Contributory and Compensatory Relationships Between Physical Education and Physical Activity in Children?

Limited data are available on the contributory and compensatory relationships between physical education and physical activity in children. Four hundred eighty-five (280 girls) children in first through sixth grades wore sealed pedometers during waking hours, including normally scheduled physical education lessons. The least, moderately, and most active children accumulated approximately 1,700, 1,100, and 2,500 more steps/day, respectively, on school days with physical education. No compensatory increases in physical activity were found on school days that did not offer physical education. The implications of the contributory relationship are highlighted by the evidence that 50% of the least active children were at risk for overweight or overweight and that no compensatory increases in physical activity were found on school days when physical education classes were not scheduled.     

Physical Education Students’ Ownership,Empowerment, and Satisfaction With PE and Physical Activity

Individuals experiencing a highly caring, task-involving, and low ego-involving exercise climate have reported greater ownership in exercise class and empowerment to exercise in general. Purpose: This study examined the relationship between ownership and empowerment in exercise, with 2 context-specific outcomes, satisfaction with physical education (PE) and physical activity, respectively. Given the mission of PE to foster individuals’ lifelong physical activity habit, the perceptions of high school students were collected for this study. Ownership in exercise was hypothesized to be significantly, positively correlated with students reporting satisfaction in PE more than their satisfaction in physical activity, whereas empowerment in exercise was hypothesized to be more strongly, positively correlated with students’ physical activity satisfaction. A second purpose of this study was to test the measurement quality of the updated Empowerment in Exercise Scale (EES; now 13 items). Method: High school students (N = 502, 43% female) in a Midwestern U.S. school district completed a survey. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the internal measurement structure of the EES (λ = .62–.91; McDonald’s omega = .89) across student gender (strong invariance). Additionally, the structural equation modeling analysis revealed only 1 parameter moderated by the students’ gender (latent mean of ownership). The hypotheses were supported, such that ownership in exercise was more strongly correlated with PE satisfaction (r = .87) and empowerment in exercise had a stronger correlation with physical activity satisfaction (r = .92). Conclusion: These results support the beneficial effect a satisfying experience in PE can have on students’ satisfaction with physical activity outside of school.     

Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Physical Activity of Children Ages 4–8 Years

Three physical activity questionnaires were validated against heart rate (HR) monitoring and motion accelerometer data. All three methods were carried out simultaneously on 62 children ages 4–8 years on 4 consecutive days. The questionnaires were filled in by the children's parents and teachers. The reported time of physical activity with moderate to vigorous intensity, expected to increase HR above 140 beats per minute (bpm), correlated with the time of HR ≥ 140 bpm and ≥ 150 bpm (r = .40, p < .01) and with the accelerometer score (r = .53, p < .0001). Correlation between the HR ≥ 140 bpm and accelerometer score was r = .45, p < .001, and between the HR ≥ 150 bpm and accelerometer score, it was r = .41, p < .01     

Children’s Aerobic Trainability and Related Questions

In response to Armstrong’s recent Special Topics review of “Top 10 Research Questions Related to Youth Aerobic Fitness,” this commentary revisits some of the points raised, particularly in relation to the question of whether a child?adult trainability difference does indeed exist. Discussed are the validity of much of the existing pediatric maximal oxygen consumption data upon which trainability conclusions are drawn, why differential trainability is likely a fact rather than a doubt, a reasoned novel approach to explaining the phenomenon, and how that explanation can bear upon and answer several of the other raised questions. The commentary is intended to inspire and encourage fresh thinking not only in relation to pediatric aerobic trainability, but more generally, regarding pediatric exercise physiology and performance and how they differ from those of adults.     

Psychometric Properties of a Parental Questionnaire for Assessing Correlates of Toddlers’ Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior

This study examined the psychometric properties of a questionnaire developed with the guidance of the socialization model of child behaviour to understand modifiable correlates of toddlers’ physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Findings are based on 118 parents (33.7 ± 4.9 years; 86% female) of toddlers (19.3 ± 2.7 months; 48% female) from Edmonton, Canada in The Parents’ Role in Establishing healthy Physical activity and Sedentary behaviour habits study (PREPS). The PREPS questionnaire encompassed 21 variables across the constructs of the socialization model of child behaviour. Of the nine variables assessed for internal consistency reliability, eight had good (α ≥ 0.70) reliability. Of the 15 continuous variables assessed for 1-week test–retest reliability, 10 had moderate (intra-class correlation = 0.50–0.74) and 5 had good (intra-class correlation ≥ 0.75) reliability. Of the six categorical variables assessed for 1-week test–retest reliability, two had fair (К = 0.21–0.40), one had moderate (К = 0.41–0.60), one had substantial (К = 0.61–0.80), and two had almost perfect (К = 0.81–1.00) reliability. Of the 12 sedentary behaviour variables assessed for convergent validity, 7 were significantly correlated with children’s screen time, of which three were small (r ≤ 0.29), two were medium (r = 0.30–0.49), and two were large (r ≥ 0.50) effect sizes.     

Effects of rule changes on physical demands and shot characteristics of elite-standard men’s squash and implications for training

The physical demands and rally characteristics of elite-standard men’s squash have not been well documented since recent rule changes (scoring and tin height). This information is needed to design optimal training drills for physical conditioning provided here based on an analysis of movement and shot information. Matches at the 2010 (n = 14) and 2011 (n = 27) Rowe British Grand Prix were analysed. Rallies were split into four ball-in-play duration categories using the 25th (short), 75th (medium), 95th percentiles (long) and maximum values. Cohen’s d and chi-squared tests of independence evaluated effects of rally and rule changes on patterns of play. The proportion of long, middle and short shots was related to the duration of the rally with more shots played in the middle and front of the court in short rallies (phi = 0.12). The frequencies of shots played from different areas of the court have not changed after the adoption of new rules but there is less time available to return shots that reflect the attacking nature of match play for elite-standard men players. Aspiring and current elite-standard players need to condition themselves to improve their ability to cope with these demands using the ghosting patterns presented that mimic demands of modern match play.     

The impact of the supporters’ trust movement on women’s feelings and practices of their football fandom

This article looks at the ways in which female football fans in England have responded to and become involved in the cooperative supporters’ trust movement. It examines the history and development of the movement, which offers a new, democratic and equitable way for supporters to become involved in the life of their club, and become part of a new, wider fan community, broader than simple club allegiance. The involvement of respondents in the supporters’ trust movement is explored, profiling the ways in which they have immersed or distanced themselves from the trust concept and community, and comparing their experiences as they have described them in interview. I argue that the trust movement offers the opportunity for supporters to help the game progress in a way that is advantageous to all fans, not just females; and this seems to be an element of the movement that has great appeal to women.     

Marking Physical Literacy or Missing the Mark on Physical Literacy? A Conceptual Critique of Canada’s Physical Literacy Assessment Instruments

Margaret Whitehead first introduced the concept of physical literacy over 20 years ago. Since that introduction, physical literacy has been gaining in popularity within many Western physical education and sport contexts. This is particularly true within Canada, where physical literacy has been embraced by two of the nation’s most notable national physical education and sport organizations (i.e., Physical and Health Education Canada, Canadian Sport for Life). As physical literacy has been generating interest and action by these organizations, they, and others, have been quick to also seek methods by which to measure it. However, it is our observation that despite the promises and possibilities of physical literacy resources, initiatives, and programs, Canada’s most accessible physical literacy assessment instruments are wanting for focused and direct contemplation. In this article, we offer a conceptual critique of the physical literacy assessment instruments being developed for and practices being encouraged within Canadian school communities. Our contemplations consider three physical literacy assessment instruments, and they are focused, principally, upon usability, trustworthiness, and fidelity to Whitehead’s conception of physical literacy. We conclude that the instruments differ in their ease of use and usefulness, some are lacking, markedly, with respect to trustworthiness, and some fail to capture physical literacy as Whitehead intended it. Finally, in light of these conclusions, we offer suggestions for future practice and inquiry.     

Foucault’s History of the Present: The Birth of the Games Concept Approach in Singapore’s Physical Education Curriculum

Abstract

The year 1999 saw a major shift in Singapore’s Physical Education curriculum when the traditional teaching approach in primary schools was replaced by a more game-like one, aptly known as the Games Concept Approach (GCA). Based on Foucault’s ‘History of the Present’ which intended to distinguish the kind of historical projects that brought this change, the focus is on tracing the forces that gave birth to the present-day practices and identifying the historical conditions which caused this shift towards GCA. Inspired by Foucault’s distinct elements of status, institutional sites and situation, the perspective of revealing a ‘history of the present’ on the birth of GCA in Singapore creates a better understanding of why it is still being taught in the PE curriculum.     

‘Physical Education’s First Lady of the World’: Dorothy Sears Ainsworth and the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Women and Girls

Abstract

Dorothy Sears Ainsworth has received wide acclaim for her pioneering efforts in international relations that enhanced collaboration among female physical educators in the decades following World War II. As Director of Physical Education for Women at Smith College (1926–1960), Ainsworth became a global figure, traveling extensively and organizing the first international conference on physical education for women and girls in Copenhagen in 1949. This resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW), today counting over 400 members from 45 different countries. In this paper we (re)consider the largely hagiographical accounts of Ainsworth’s career and re-examine her contributions to the international stage in light of her maternalist views on female sport and physicality. Indeed, women’s difference from men dominated the discourse of many international women’s movements at this time. We consider what IAPESGW’s long-term governance by primarily white and wealthy women may have meant in terms of the organization’s focus and globalizing efforts and conclude that though Ainsworth’s essentialist approach ignored earlier feminist sporting movements, and would not outlast the more progressive winds of change in the 1970s, neither should her early contributions to establishing bonds among female physical educators globally be minimized.     

Evaluation of Low-Cost,Objective Instruments for Assessing Physical Activity in 10–11-Year-Old Children

This study compared step counts detected by four, low-cost, objective, physical-activity-assessment instruments and evaluated their ability to detect moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) compared to the ActiGraph accelerometer (AG). Thirty-six 10–11-year-old children wore the NL-1000, Yamax Digiwalker SW 200, Omron HJ-151, and Walk4Life MVP concurrently with the AG during school hours on a single day. AG MVPA was derived from activity count data using previously validated cut points. Two of the evaluated instruments provided similar group mean MVPA and step counts compared to AG (dependent on cut point). Low-cost instruments may be useful for measurement of both MVPA and steps in children's physical activity interventions and program evaluation.     

Young people’s experiences of parental involvement in youth sport

Recently parental involvement in youth sport has intensified, challenging the understanding of youth sports as an arena where adolescents can develop their identity and autonomy. On this background, our study explores how adolescents understand and negotiate their parents’ involvement in sport and how they define ideal and undesirable forms of parental involvement. Our empirical setting is Norway, and we draw on data from 16 focus group interviews among 13–14-year-olds (n?=?92) recruited from two lower secondary schools. The analysis shows that young people distinguish between different aspects of the sport activity when defining ideal and undesirable forms of parental involvement. When discussing sport as a healthy activity necessary for physical and social development, the young people interviewed approve of parents’ role in regulating and encouraging participation. When considering the athletic aspects and peer sociability, however, they see parental involvement as mostly undesirable. The analysis also shows that the adolescents generally describe their parents as attentive to the boundaries their children draw for them about levels and types of involvement. Therefore, young people should be seen not only as subjected to parental involvement but also as active co-constructors of valid parental roles in and beyond the sporting arena.     

SHAPE America’s 50 Million StrongTM: Critical Research Questions Related to Youth Physical Activity

SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators has targeted youth physical activity (PA) as 1 of its 4 goals within the 50 Million Strong^TM campaign. Only 27.1% of youth met the target of all students (preK–12) participating in at least 60 min of PA that increases their heart rate enough to breathe hard at least some of the time for 7 days/week. Thus, improvements for child and adolescent engagement in PA need to be made now through 2029 and beyond. The need for these improvements warrants research related to PA and youth. We present a plethora of research questions within 3 general areas: PA and school PA programs, PA and sedentary behavior measurement, and PA and social justice imperatives. Each question is framed within the social-ecological framework levels of learning, opportunity, policy, and population health.     

Weighing in on NBC’s The Biggest Loser

Previous analyses (i.e., Bernstein & St. John, 2006; Sender & Sullivan, 2008) of the television show The Biggest Loser have detailed its negative presentation of the obese body, potential consequences for viewers, and its role as a technology of governmentality. However, there has been little exploration of how audience members conceptualize and enact the messages communicated in the show within these intricate frameworks. The current research used information from semistructured interviews with 40 dedicated viewers to capture the salient meanings they ascribed to The Biggest Loser within the themes of governmentality and self-concept. Overall, the group experienced the program as a transformative, entertaining, and inspirational event that produced little change in their exercise behavior. Thus, the role of reality television in creating healthy behavior change is potentially limited.