Young people's physical activity, attitudes towards physical education, and health related fitness
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the physical activity, attitudes towards\nphysical education, and health related fitness at two points, one year apart\n(Phase One and Phase Two). Three hundred and ninety four secondary\nschool pupils of mixed ethnicities from National Curriculum school years 7, 8\nand 9 (mean age ± S.D. = 12.9 ± 0.81 years) participated in phase one of the\nstudy. Two hundred and sixty seven pupils (from the original 394 participants)\nfrom National Curriculum school years 8, 9 and 10 (mean age ± S.D. = 13.7 ±\n0.79 years) took part in phase two one year later. Physical activity was\nmeasured using the four by one-day physical activity recall questionnaire\n(Cale, 1993). Attitude was measured using the Pre-Adolescent Attitude\ntowards Physical Education Questionnaire (PAAPEQ) (Shropshire, 1997).\nFive components of health related fitness were measured in a randomly\nselected sub-sample (35%) of the overall sample: body composition (measured\nusing skinfold measures and body mass index); cardiovascular endurance\n(measured using the twenty metre multistage fitness test, Brewer et al., 1988);\nflexibility (measured using the sit and reach test); muscular strength (measured\nusing hand grip dynamometry); and muscular endurance (measured using situps).\nResults of repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant decrease in\nenergy expenditure between phase one and phase two (p<0.01) and young\npeople’s energy expenditure was higher during weekends (especially\nSaturdays) than during school days (p<0.01). Young Asians were found to\nexpend less energy than white and black pupils (p<0.01) and boys expended\nmore energy than girls (p<0.01). No main effect according to school year was\nfound (p>0.05) although a significant ‘time’ by ‘days’ of the week interaction\nwas revealed; pupils in Year 8 were more active on school days than those in\nYears 7 and 9 (p<0.05). Non-parametric analyses conducted on time spent in\nmoderate physical activity (MPA) and vigorous physical activity (VPA) indicated\nthat: MPA and VPA decreased between phases one and two; Asians\nconsistently spent less time in MPA than white and black pupils (p<0.01); boys\nengaged in more MPA and VPA than girls (p<0.01). However, the difference in\nmean reported time for boys and girls decreased between phases one and\ntwo. Percentages of the whole sample meeting optimal activity guidelines and\npercentages classified as active or moderately active decreased between\nmeasurements for the whole sample.\nWith regard to attitudes towards PE, results from MANOVA revealed a\nsignificant ‘school year’ x ‘ethnicity’ x ‘gender’ interaction (p<0.05). Attitudes of\nblack males became more positive with age whereas the attitudes of other\ngroups followed an age related decline. Significant main effects were found\naccording to school year (p<0.01) and ethnicity (p<0.05). Attitude towards PE\nbecame less favourable with school year. Asian pupils had more positive\noverall attitudes than white and black pupils but univariate analysis revealed\nthat Asian pupils had a less positive attitude towards their PE teacher (p<0.05).\nFurthermore, Pearson’s product moment correlations indicated weak yet\nsignificant positive relationships between total attitude towards PE and energy\nexpenditure (p<0.01), time spent in moderate activity (p<0.05) and time spent\nin vigorous activity (p<0.01).\nResults of repeated measures ANOVA conducted on health related fitness\ndata revealed that, for all groups, body fat (p<0.05) and muscular endurance\n(p<0.01) increased between phases one and two. In both phases, significant\npositive relationships were found between muscular endurance and energy\nexpenditure (p<0.01) and vigorous activity (p<0.05 and p<0.01 for phases one\nand two respectively). Therefore, young people who were more active had\ngreater levels of muscular endurance. No further consistent findings were\nmade.\nFindings indicate that generally young people’s physical activity decreases with\nage and that girls are less active than boys although as young people age the\nphysical activity gap between the genderes narrows. Findings also lend\nsupport to the idea that cultural differences may influence physical activity\nlevels and attitudes towards PE. Furthermore, associations between physical\nactivity and attitude towards PE exist and therefore, attitude may be used to\npredict physical activity behaviour. Ethnicity, age, and attitude towards PE\nshould be considered in the development of future interventions to increase\nyoung people’s physical activity levels. However, as the current study did not\nreveal strong associations between physical activity and health related fitness,\nfurther research is required in the area.
Author: Lorayne Woodfield
Language: English
Topic: Physical Activity and Health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W776430070