Social Ecological Analysis of Children's Physical Activity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Background/Purpose: It is well-documented that regular physical activity can produce significant health benefits, but many elementary school students do not engage in sufficient physical activity within and beyond the school settings to meet national physical activity guideline (USDHHS, 2008). Given the fact that physical activity habits developed during childhood may track into adolescence and adulthood, it is imperative to understand multiple theory-based factors of physical activity to design effective physical activity interventions aimed at promoting children’s physical activity and fitness level (Sallis et al., 2000; USDHHS, 2008). Based on the social ecological model (Sallis & Owen, 2002), multilevel variables, such as perceived competence, enjoyment, school social and physical environment, have been identified as important influences on children’s physical activity, but researchers have not investigated these variables on physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in elementary school students. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining the predictive strengths of multiple factors toward elementary school students' physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness.

Method: Participants were 428 students (231 boys, 197 girls; M _age = 10.9 years) from three suburban public elementary schools. They completed previously validated surveys assessing their perceptions of enjoyment, perceived competence, school social environment and physical environment, self-reported physical activity during their regular physical education classes. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured by using FITNESSGRAM^® PACER test at the end of the spring semester.

Analysis/Results: Correlation analyses revealed that all variables were significantly related to one another (r's ranging from .12 to .78, p <.01). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that perceived competence, enjoyment, and school social environment (β = .26, p < .01; β = .25, p < .01; β = .17, p < .05; respectively) were positive predictors of students’ self-reported physical activity, explaining 31.6 % of the variance. Further, self-reported physical activity and perceived competence (β = .12, p < .05; β = .18, p < .01; respectively) were positive predictors of students’ cardiorespiratory fitness, accounting for 9.1% of the variance.

Conclusions: The findings provide empirical evidence regarding the interactions among these social ecological variables and elementary school children’s physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness. The results highlight the importance of school social environments on students' physical activity beyond the individual variables. Further, perceived competence and self-reported physical activity significantly predict children’s cardiorespiratory fitness. These findings have significant implications for physical activity interventions aimed at promoting elementary school students' physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in the school setting.