scholarly journals NON-FORMAL PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN: INCREASE FACTOR OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND PHYSICAL FITNESS

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (102) ◽  
pp. 44-51
Author(s):  
Asta Šarkauskienė ◽  
Sigita Derkintienė ◽  
Šarūnas Paplauskas

Background. Studies on physical activity, which is positively associated with physical fitness, reveal that children’s activity is not sufficient (BHFNC, 2010; Chen, Zheng, Yi, & Yao, 2014; Currie et al., 2012), and their physical fitness deteriorates (Volbekienė & Kavaliauskas, 2002; Мирошниченко & Астраханцев, 2005; Синявский, Власов, & Сергеев, 2009). Non-formal physical education (NFPE) is one of the means to increase children’s physical activity and physical fitness. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of NFPE on the physical fitness of 6th grade pupils. Methods. The research was conducted in May, 2013; 356 six-graders (48.0% of girls) from four Klaipėda city comprehensive schools participated in the research. As many as 56.5% of children (48.3% of girls) participated in NFPE in school and out of school. The participants completed five physical fitness tests. Results. Independent t test revealed that the results of boys who attended the NFPE group of cardiorespiratory fitness, t(180) = −2.093, p = .038; upper body muscular strength and endurance, t(182) = 2.413, p = .017; abdominal muscular strength and endurance, t(186) = 3.282, p = .001; explosive leg power, t(183) = 1.967, p = .049, and girls’ results of abdominal muscular strength and endurance, t(172) = 2.687, p = .008 were significantly higher than those in the NFPE non attended group. Conclusion. Non-formal physical education is a meaningful educational form for increasing children’s, particularly boys’, health related physical fitness; therefore it is purposeful to encourage children to participate in physical activities in school and after classes.

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Raudsepp ◽  
Toivo Jürimäe

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between physical activity and physical fitness and adiposity in a sample of 77 girls, aged 10–11 years. Physical activity was assessed by 7-day physical activity recall by which children reported how much time they spent on low and moderate-to-vigorous physical activities. Physical fitness was measured by EUROFIT test battery. Adiposity was estimated by sum of five skinfolds. The main finding of the study was that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and adiposity were significant predictors (with 16–34% accounted variance) of physical fitness tests where the body mass affects performance. Indicators of physical activity and adiposity were not significantly related with fitness items requiring muscular strength, balance, flexibility, and speed of limb movement. Furthermore, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and aerobic fitness predicted 22% of variance in adiposity in girls.


Retos ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Santiago Guijarro-Romero ◽  
Daniel Mayorga-Vega ◽  
Carolina Casado-Robles ◽  
Jesús Viciana

El objetivo del presente estudio fue comparar el efecto de una unidad didáctica intermitente de acondicionamiento físico en Educación Física sobre los niveles de actividad física y capacidad cardiorrespiratoria entre estudiantes con un perfil saludable/no saludable de capacidad cardiorrespiratoria. Ochenta estudiantes de 2º-3º curso de Educación Secundaria fueron asignados aleatoriamente al grupo control y grupo experimental. El grupo experimental, dividido en perfiles saludable/no saludable, realizó una unidad didáctica intermitente de acondicionamiento físico para mejorar la capacidad cardiorrespiratoria. El grupo control trabajó un contenido diferente durante el mismo tiempo y con la misma frecuencia, pero sin hacer hincapié en la mejora de la capacidad cardiorrespiratoria. Antes y después de la intervención, la capacidad cardiorrespiratoria se evaluó objetivamente mediante el test de ida y vuelta de 20 metros. Los niveles de actividad física fueron medidos objetivamente a través de un pulsómetro durante las clases de Educación Física. Ambos perfiles tuvieron mayores niveles de actividad física durante las clases de Educación Física que el grupo control (p < .001). Sin embargo, solo los estudiantes con un perfil no saludable mejoraron significativamente sus niveles de capacidad cardiorrespiratoria tras la unidad didáctica (p < .01). Aunque una unidad didáctica intermitente de acondicionamiento físico parece tener un efecto similar en los niveles de actividad física de todos los perfiles de capacidad cardiorrespiratoria de los estudiantes, solo mejora la capacidad cardiorrespiratoria de los estudiantes con un perfil no saludable. Abstract. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of a Physical Education-based physical fitness intermittent teaching unit on physical activity levels and cardiorespiratory fitness among students with healthy/unhealthy cardiorespiratory fitness profile. Eighty students from 2º-3º grades of Secondary Education were randomly assigned to the control group and experimental group. The experimental group, divided into healthy/unhealthy profiles, performed a physical fitness intermittent teaching unit to improve the cardiorespiratory fitness. The control group worked a different content during the same time and with the same frequency, but without emphasizing cardiorespiratory fitness improvement. Before and after the teaching unit, students’ cardiorespiratory fitness was objectively measured by the 20-meter shuttle run test. Participants’ physical activity levels were measured objectively using a heart rate monitor during Physical Education lessons. Students from both profiles had higher physical activity levels during Physical Education lessons than the control group (p < .001). However, only students with an unhealthy cardiorespiratory fitness profile statistically improved their cardiorespiratory fitness levels after the teaching unit (p < .01). Although an intermittent physical fitness teaching unit seems to have similar effect on physical activity levels of students from all cardiorespiratory fitness profiles, it only improves the cardiorespiratory fitness of those with an unhealthy one.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-171
Author(s):  
Konstantinos D. Tambalis ◽  
Stamatis Mourtakos ◽  
Labros S. Sidossis

Purpose: To investigate the potential associations of maternal prepregnancy body mass index (mppBMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with physical fitness in children. Methods: A random sample of 5125 children and their mothers was evaluated. The mothers provided data contained in their medical booklets and pregnancy ultrasound records. The data from 5 physical fitness tests (eg, 20-m shuttle run, 30-m sprint, vertical jump, standing long jump, and small ball throw) were used to assess children’s cardiorespiratory fitness, speed, explosive power, and lower and upper body strength, respectively. Results: MppBMI was inversely associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (b = −0.02), lower body strength (b = −1.01), upper body strength (b = −0.07), and speed (b = 0.04). Also, GWG was unfavorably associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (b = −0.02), lower body strength (b = −1.12), upper body strength (b = −0.03), and speed (b = 0.03), after adjusting for sex, birth weight, and children’s BMI (all P values < .05). Children of mothers with an mppBMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and excess GWG had almost 30% and 20% increased odds for low performances in physical fitness tests than those of mothers with an mppBMI < 25 kg/m2 and adequate GWG, respectively. Conclusions: Antenatal factors such as increased mppBMI and excess GWG could play an unfavorable role in the future health of the offspring.


Author(s):  
Edita Maciulevičienė ◽  
Rita Sadzevičienė ◽  
Renata Rutkauskaitė

Research background and hypothesis. The objective methods of measuring physical activity (PA) are used more and more widely in various types of research. However, in Lithuania there is a lack of such studies with adolescents. Thus, we conducted a pilot study to objectively measure boys’ PA and to develop a more accurate PA assessment methodology in Lithuania. The purpose of this study was to analyse the objectively measured adolescent boys’ weekly physical activity and its relation to their body composition and physical fitness.Research  methods.  The  participants  of  this  study  were  104  healthy  adolescent  boys.  Physical  activity  of schoolboys was measured using actigraphs (Tri-axis ActiTrainer Activity Monitors). The level of the intensity of physical activity was determined by calculating energy consumption in MET’s. Low PA (LPA) equals up to 3 MET’s, moderate PA (MPA) – 3–6 MET’s, and vigorous PA (VPA) – 8 or more METs. Based on the frequency of VPA and MPA per week, the participants of this study were divided into physical activity groups. For health-related physical fitness  assessment  the  following  tests  were  used:  body  composition  (using TANITA  Body Analyser, TBF-300); flexibility (sit and reach test, Eurofitas, 2002), power (vertical jump was measured using a jump parameter gauge (SBM-1), muscular strength and endurance (modified push-up test (Suni et al., 1994)). Research results. All of the schoolboys demonstrated LPA on each day of the assessment. MPA on each day was experienced by 59.6% of the boys. No participants achieved VPA . The most frequent MPA and VPA were observed 5–7 and 1–3 days per week, respectively. Results of body composition indicated that boys experiencing VPA had lower body fat mass compared to those who experienced only MPA and LPA (p < 0.05). Analysis of physical fitness results indicated that boys who experienced VPA were better muscular in strength and endurance test (p < 0.05), but results of high jump and sit and reach test were not significantly different. Discussion and conclusion. Boys who experienced VPA at least for 3 days/week demonstrated better muscular strength and endurance results and had lower body fat content (%) (p < 0.05). For boys who did not experience MPA at least for 6 days/week, the total amount of weekly physical activity decreased and they could not produce better results in strength and endurance test (p < 0.05). Better results of boys’ muscular strength and endurance were  significantly related to their body lower BMI (r = 0.279; p < 0.05) and fat mass (r = 0.387; p < 0.01). Objectively Measured Weekly Physical  Activity among Adolescent Boys and its  Relation to Health-Related Physical FitnessKeywords: physical activity, MET’s, actigraphs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Åvitsland ◽  
Eva Leibinger ◽  
Tommy Haugen ◽  
Øystein Lerum ◽  
Runar Barstad Solberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Studies indicate that cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and body composition are associated with mental health. However, research is scarce concerning this relationship in young adolescents in general and non-existent in Norwegian populations specifically. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between different health-related aspects of physical fitness and self-reported mental health in Norwegian adolescents. Methods: Participants from four regions of Norway (n = 1486; mean age = 13.9; girls = 50.6%) completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and were measured for cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and body composition. Linear mixed effects models were conducted to assess the associations between the health-related aspects of physical fitness and the total difficulties score of the questionnaire. Results: Body composition was not associated with total difficulties score. Muscular strength independently was associated with total difficulties score, but when all independent variables were entered in the fully adjusted model, only cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with total difficulties score. School clusters were included as random effects and all models were controlled for sex, socioeconomic status and birthplace (domestic or foreign). Conclusions: A small but significant negative association between cardiorespiratory fitness and total difficulties score indicated that higher cardiorespiratory fitness predicted better mental health in Norwegian adolescents. The results suggest that muscular strength is not associated with mental health in adolescents, when controlling for cardiorespiratory fitness. Future research on how exercise affects mental health should investigate whether there is a greater effect for participants who improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13708
Author(s):  
Beáta Ružbarská ◽  
Branislav Antala ◽  
Miroslav Gombár ◽  
Lenka Tlučáková

(1) The aim of this paper was to explore the views of primary and secondary school children’s parents on physical education (PE) and to subsequently analyse the differences in their views. The gender of the parent and child was taken into consideration as well as the parents’ levels of education. (2) The research sample consisted of 821 participants 668 of which were female (81.4%) and 153 of which were male (18.6%). The views of the children’s parents were collected through a non-standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into four areas (1—attitudes towards the physical education teaching process, 2—physical activity as part of lifestyle, 3—physical education during the COVID-19 pandemic, 4—social capital), with a total of 18 items in the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was analysed using Cronbach’s coefficient reached 0.835. Confirmatory factor analysis was also used to test the predicted factor structure. (3) In general, this research found that parents were more likely to express dissatisfaction if their child was only provided with 2 PE classes per week and would accept an increase in this number. Those parents whose children do not participate in organized physical activities were shown to be unsatisfied with their children’s physical fitness. A more significant limitation of children’s physical activity (PA) was observed among parents with secondary education. Parents with secondary education also feel that their child partaking in PA when they have free time is not so important, whereas parents with a higher level of education feel that it is. (4) Parents expressed positive evaluations of PE and recognized the importance it has in their child’s education. In the questionnaire, questions were related to physical fitness and PA specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic and this research observes the differences in opinions of parents depending on the level of education they attained and the gender of their child.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Melero-Cañas ◽  
Vicente Morales-Baños ◽  
David Manzano-Sánchez ◽  
Dani Navarro-Ardoy ◽  
Alfonso Valero-Valenzuela

Physical activity (PA), body composition and sedentary behavior may affect the health of children. Therefore, this study examined the effect of an educational hybrid physical education (PE) program on physical fitness (PF), body composition and sedentary and PA times in adolescents. A 9-month group-randomized controlled trial was conducted in 150 participants (age: 14.63 ± 1.38 years) allocated into the control group (CG, n = 37) and experimental group (EG, n = 113). Cardiorespiratory fitness, speed, strength, agility, flexibility and body mass index (BMI) were assessed through previously validated field tests. Sedentary time, PA at school and afterschool were evaluated with the Youth Activity Profile-Spain questionnaire. Significant differences were observed concerning to the CG in APA-weekend (p = 0.044), speed-agility (p = 0.005) and agility (p = 0.008). Regarding the intervention, cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.000), speed-agility (p = 0.000), strength (p = 0.000), flexibility (p = 0.000), agility (p = 0.000), PA in school (p = 0.011), APA-weekday (p = 0.001), APA-weekend (p = 0.000), APA-week (p = 0.000), and sedentary time (p = 0.000) increased significantly in the EG. The use of a hybrid program based on teaching personal and social responsibility and gamification strategies produced enhancements in cardiorespiratory fitness, agility, speed, APA-weekdays and APA-weekends, reducing the sedentary time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 279-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Martínez-Vizcaíno ◽  
Diana P Pozuelo-Carrascosa ◽  
Jorge C García-Prieto ◽  
Iván Cavero-Redondo ◽  
Montserrat Solera-Martínez ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo test a physical activity intervention (MOVI-KIDS) on obesity indicators, physical fitness and blood pressure (BP) in children.MethodsA crossover randomised cluster trial was conducted, which comprised 1434 children (4–7 years old) from 21 schools in the provinces of Cuenca and Ciudad Real in the Castilla-La Mancha region of Spain. The intervention consisted of three 60 min sessions/week on weekdays between October 2013 and May 2014. Changes in anthropometric variables, physical fitness and BP parameters were measured. The analyses used were mixed regression models to adjust for baseline covariates under cluster randomisation.ResultsThere was no significant improvement in overweight/obesity with the intervention compared with the control group in both sexes. Further, the intervention did not alter other adiposity indicators or BP parameters. Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness were seen in girls (1.19; 95% CI 0.31 to 2.08; p=0.008), but not in boys. Finally, there was an improvement in velocity/agility in both girls (−2.51 s; 95% CI −3.98 to −1.05; p=0.001) and boys (−2.35 s; 95% CI −3.71 to −0.98; p=0.001), and in muscular strength in both girls (0.66; 95% CI 0.03 to 1.28; p=0.038) and boys (1.26; 95% CI 0.03 to 1.28; p<0.001).ConclusionMOVI-KIDS was not successful in reducing the adiposity and maintained BP levels at previous healthy values in children. The intervention, however, showed significant improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness in girls, and muscular strength and velocity/agility in boys and girls.Trial registration numberNCT01971840; Post-results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Kasović ◽  
Lovro Štefan ◽  
Vilko Petrić

AbstractThe main purpose of the study was to analyze secular trends of health-related physical fitness in 7–14-year-old Croatian children and adolescents from 1999 and 2014. In this observational cross-sectional study, we recruited 5077 children and adolescents between ages 11 and 14 (50.8% girls) from five primary schools located in the capital city of Zagreb. Physical fitness performance was tested from 1999 until 2014. Physical fitness performance included: (1) body-mass index (measure of body size), (2) standing broad jump (measure of lower-body power), (3) polygon backwards (measure of general coordination and agility), (4) sit-ups in 60 s (measure of upper-body strength), (5) sit-and-reach test (measure of flexibility) and (6) 6-min run test (measure of cardiorespiratory fitness). Boys performed better in all physical fitness tests, except for sit-and-reach test (p < 0.001). In boys, between 1999 and 2014, body size, upper-body strength and coordination/agility increased, while flexibility, lower-body power and cardiorespiratory fitness decreased. During the same period, girls experienced an increase in body size, lower-body power, upper-body strength, coordination/agility and flexibility, while cardiorespiratory fitness decreased. This study shows that cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility and coordination/agility decrease, while upper-body strength increases in both sexes. These findings should serve as an avenue for national monitoring system to screen and track biological development in children and adolescents.


Author(s):  
Asta Sarkauskiene ◽  
Brendon Noble ◽  
Laimute Kardeliene

The aim of this study was to develop and implement curriculum of non-formal physical education in school and assess its effectiveness for health related physical fitness of 11-13 year old children. The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage 51 11-13 year old children participated in a quasi-experiment for two years. Pupils were organized into E (experimental) and C (control) groups. Both groups shared the duration (1 hour) and frequency (twice a week) but were different in their education curriculum. In the second stage 72 pupils (groups A and B) attended in the research from the same schools. The curriculum of the group A was modified and differed from group E, group B - the same as group C. In both stages the focus groups performed four physical fitness tests and BMI was calculated. Group E girls’ indices of three tests and boys’ indices of all four tests were significantly (p<0.05) higher than young adolescents’ from group C. Group A girls’ flexibility and aerobic endurance as well as boys aerobic endurance were higher (p < 0.05) than pupils from group B. Results suggest that the individualized, diverse, 11‒13 years old children hobbies, needs, abilities, physical and functional powers answering non-formal curriculum, which expands knowledge and develops new skills and when various child-activating teaching methods and forms are used, positively influence their health related physical fitness.  


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