Obesity and secondary conditions continue to disproportionally affect the health of children living in urban areas. Studies show that a lack of resources and physical activity-unfriendly communities discourage 60 minutes of daily activity, including strengthening exercises, as recommended by the CDC. Bone and muscle strengthening activities that are individual, non-resource intensive, and can be performed in home settings, such as yoga, may provide important options to increase urban youth participation in recommended PA levels and activities. Using Social Ecological theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the multi-level influences of a yoga-based intervention on urban, inner city youth.
Method:
Using mixed methods, ninety-three 3-5th grade students (82% African American, 7.6% Hispanic, 11.4% other) at five elementary schools participated in a ten-week yoga intervention (one session per week) during PE classes. Attendance records were collected and standardized pre/post scales measured yoga enjoyment, stress, and yoga participation outside PE. In addition, each class was observed at least twice (N=14) and 93 students were interviewed at the end of the intervention. Quantitative data were cleaned and analyzed using multiple regression analyses. Observation and interview data were analyzed through constant comparison and trustworthiness strategies included triangulation, peer-debriefing, and member checking.
Analysis/Results:
Multiple regression analyses revealed that program attendance, change in stress, and change in yoga enjoyment predicted change in yoga participation outside PE, when controlling for gender and age (F(5,87) = 5.36, p < .01, adj. R2 = .19). Specifically, students who completed more sessions of the yoga intervention experienced carryover effects of yoga participation outside of the structured program. Student interviews and non-participant observations revealed strong enjoyment of yoga which led students to report substantial increases in yoga-related activities outside of school. Taylor reported in his interview that he liked to participate in yoga at home and added “I love to teach my little sister how to do all of the poses that I have learned.”
Conclusions:
Through convergence of qualitative and quantitative methods, this study showed a positive relationship between the number of yoga sessions attended (dose), enjoyment of yoga, and participation outside PE with friends and family. Findings suggest that urban PE should include more individual, non-competitive activities such as yoga, which students find to be stress-relieving, fun, inexpensive and easy to perform at home.