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Physical activity patterns among youth has become an issue throughout the world in recent decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have established daily physical activity guidelines for youth; however, not all children follow these recommendations. Factors leading to this include limited opportunities for active transportation and after-school activity programs. In this study, 3rd through 9th grade students from a rural community were evaluated based on their transportation method to and from school, participation in after-school sports programs, and overall how active they were in a 24-hour period based on step count. Students completed questionnaires regarding their transportation and sports participation and wore pedometers to determine their daily step counts. The results found that only 4.5% of the students used active transportation to and from school. About one-third participated in after-school programs, and of this amount, approximately one-third took part in those offered at school. Elementary and middle school males met the recommended amount of daily steps at the first time of data collection, but not at the second or third. Elementary and middle school females did not meet the recommended amount of steps at time 1, but did at time 2 and time 3. Ninth-grade females did not meet the recommended step count at either time data was collected. The amount of students who used active transport limited the ability to determine significant differences between those who used active transport and those who did not. At time 3, there were significant differences with students who participated in after-school sports achieving more daily steps than those who did not participate. There was also a trend toward this same outcome in time 1. From these results, it was determined that more opportunities for active transportation and after-school sports should be implemented into this community. With this, the activity levels among students may increase and more students would reach the recommended amount of daily physical activity.
ContributorsSwiss, Amanda (Author) / Kulinna, Pamela Hodges (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Stylianou, Michalis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Children's wellbeing has been of utmost concern to society, and recently this topic has taken a particular focus in both health and achievement. As the focus shifts towards promoting a healthier and more academically successful youth, the relationship between the two warrants investigation. Specifically, the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance (i.e. grades) in 4th grade students was assessed. A cross-sectional design was used to assess physical fitness of children (M=9.39 years) by means of the FITNESSGRAM assessment tool. Third-quarter grades were used to measure academic performance. Relationships between the variables were determined through bivariate plots, Pearson product moment correlation analysis, independent t-tests, and a three-step regression analysis. The results show a significant relationship between students' aerobic fitness and academic performance. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest incremental validity between aerobic fitness and academic performance, thus implying predictive value associated with increased physical fitness and academic achievement.
ContributorsMoore, Shannon (Author) / Kulinna, Pamela (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Stylianou, Michalis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12