Promoting Active Healthy Lifestyles

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Promoting Active Healthy Lifestyles

• From Principles to Practice in Youth Sport and
  Physical Education
• Lois S. Hale, Ph.D.
• The University of Texas of the Permian Basin

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The nature of the challenge

• Inactivity is one of the ten leading global
  causes of death and disability (WHO, 2003)
• More than 60 of adults do not engage in
  sufficient levels of physical activity to benefit
  their present and future health (WHO, 2003)

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The Caribbean Challenge

• There are substantial amounts of physical
  inactivity, especially among women.
• A large proportion of the Caribbean population is
  not interested in making positive lifestyle
  changes.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO)
  55 per cent of the people in the Caribbean will
  be hit with diabetes in the next 15 years.

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Trinidad and Tobagos Challenge

• A majority of adults know that regular physical
  activity is good for their health less than 20
  meet the criteria of 30 minutes of regular
  exercise 3 times/week. (National Health Survey,
  1995)
• Less than a third of Trinidadians exercise.
  (The West Indian
  Medical Journal, 2002)
• A longer life span and an increasingly sedentary
  lifestyle have led to an increase in chronic
  diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
  (Ministry of Health, TT)

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But the children?

• A substantial proportion of children and
  adolescents are not sufficiently active (over 50
  of adolescents) (Stone et al., 1998)
• 60 of todays children in the United States
  manifest as least one modifiable risk factor for
  the development of coronary artery disease
  (Strong, et al., 1992)

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Then there is obesity

• Obesity and overweight rates are on the rise
  among young people in Trinidad and Tobago.
• In the adult population of Trinidad and Tobago,
  16.8 are estimated to be obese and 31.4
  overweight.(Food and Agriculture Organization of
  the United Nations, 2003)
• Over 60 of young women in Barbados are
  overweight. (Caribbean Youth Environment Network)

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But, I teach physical education and coach sport.

• What can I do?

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Support from Heath Ministries

• Develop a healthy school policy or program.
• Require physical education and include it in the
  formal exam system.
• Broaden the range of sports and physical
  activities to include non-competitive activities
  such as aerobics and dance to encourage
  participation among girls.(Recommendations from
  a meeting of Caribbean Health Ministers, 2000)

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What you do makes a difference

• Evidence suggests that physical activity behavior
  patterns acquired during childhood and
  adolescence are likely to be maintained
  throughout the life span (Stucky-Robb
  DiLorenzo, 1993).
• Adolescents who had more experience with physical
  activity and sports prior to age 15 had a higher
  psychological readiness for physical activity at
  30 years of age (Engstrom, 1991).

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The purpose of this presentation is

• To identify several psychosocial factors believed
  to influence current and future levels of
  physical activity among children and adolescents.
  
• To discuss the implications that these factors
  hold for the design and delivery of physical
  education and sports programs that promote the
  adoption of active lifestyles by children and
  young people.

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The assumptions upon which the presentation is
based Assumption 1

• Schools should be responsible for providing
  appropriate and adequate physical activity for
  all young people through physical education
  programs as well as through school sports
  programs and after school leisure-time physical
  activity initiatives.

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Assumption 2

• Physical education and sports program personnel
  should endorse the adoption and continuation of
  an active healthy lifestyle by students and
  athletes as a major program goal recognizing
  that turning young people on to physical activity
  for a lifetime is a high priority.

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Assumption 3

• The degree of success that physical education and
  sports programs will have in meeting the program
  goal in number 2 is dependent upon
• what is taught,
• how it is taught, and
• the structure of the physical activity
  environment in which children and young people
  participate.

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Psychosocial FactorsSelf-Efficacy and
Perceived CompetenceMotivational ClimateSocial
SupportPerceived BenefitsGender
Current Future Levels of Physical Activity
What is taught? (Curriculum) How is it taught?
(Instruction) How is the physical activity
environment structured? (Context)
Figure 1. The influence of psychosocial factors
and the nature of physical education and sports
programs on physical activity levels.
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Psychosocial Factors

• What psychosocial factors influence physical
  activity levels of children and adolescents?

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Self-Efficacy

• Self-efficacy the confidence we have in being
  able to do a certain thing under particular
  circumstances
• An important correlate of physical activity
  participation for children and adolescents
  choice, effort, and persistence.
• In a study of the determinants of physical
  activity among children in 5th and 6th grades and
  again in 9th and 10th grades, the only positive
  predictor for girls was self-efficacy (DiLorenzo,
  et al., 1998).

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Perceived Competence

• The degree to which children participate in MVPA
  is related to their perceptions concerning their
  fitness competence (Kimiecik, Horn, and Shurin,
  1996)
• Children with low perceptions of their abilities
  to learn and perform sport skills do not
  participate or they drop out, whereas children
  who persist have higher levels of perceived
  competence (Weiss Chaumeton, 1992)

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Perceived Competence

• Self-perception of competence is influenced by
  personal dispositions (task and/or ego goal
  orientations) and experiences with others.
• YOU convey to your students and athletes your
  expectations, values, and beliefs YOU shape
  their definition of achievement improvement vs.
  beating others.

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Motivational Climates

• Mastery or task involved climates
• effort, learning, and self-reference goal
  achievement are promoted
• Performance or ego involved climates
• winning and social comparisons of ability are
  advocated

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Mastery Climates

• Children task oriented.
• Late childhood influenced by others.
• Depending on expectations and rewards, they may
  continue to be task oriented or may adopt both
  task and ego orientations.
• The physical education and sport environment we
  structure for them makes a difference.

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Mastery Climates

• higher task orientation
• greater feelings of satisfaction
• less boredom
• higher perceived ability
• higher intrinsic motivation
• the belief that effort and ability are causes of
  success (Attribution theory)
• a more positive attitude toward physical
  education (Weigand Burton, 2002)

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Social Support

• Parents, siblings, friends, and others influence
  participation in PA.
• Boys perceive significantly more modeling and
  support from friends for PA than girls (Stallis,
  et al., 1996).
• Perceived social support has more impact on PA
  levels of girls than boys - lack of support is
  the real issue for girls. (DiLorenzo, et al.).

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Social Support vs. Social Control

• behavioral reactance individuals perceive
  significant others to be exerting social control,
  rather than providing social support, so they act
  in the opposite way.
• The degree to which 5th and 8th graders believed
  they were able to easily regulate their physical
  activities (perceived behavioral control) was
  shown to predict intent to participate (Craig,
  Goldberg, Dietz, 1996.)

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Why children play

• In study upon study, fun has been shown to be the
  primary reason children engage in sport and
  physical activity the primary perceived
  benefit.
• Children prefer unstructured, self-directed
  physical activity outside of school (Walton, et
  al., 1999). Is that what we provide for them?

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Perceived Benefits Fun, Enjoyment and Excitement

• What happens to our play on our way to
• becoming adults? Downgraded by the intellectuals,
• dismissed by the economists, put aside by the
• psychologists, it was left to the teachers to
  deliver
• the coup de grace. Physical education was born
• and turned what was joy into boredom, fun into
• drudgery, pleasure into work.
• (Sheehan, 1978, pp. 72-73)

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Why Children Are Active

• Enjoyment of physical education
• Afternoon time for sport and physical activity.
• Family support for physical activity (support
  more important than parental physical activity
  behavior).

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Gender

• Generally, girls are less active than boys from
  childhood on with these differences increasing
  throughout adolescence.
• There are differences in
• preference for competitive activities,
• perceived competence in physical activity, and
• perceived benefits from participation.
• How do we deal with these gender differences?

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Recommendations for Practice

• Now we know what we know, what do we do?

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What should we teach?

• Offer activities that encourage high rates of
  physical activity.
• Allow for some choice of activities.
• Include noncompetitive activities, partner and
  small group activities, lifetime and recreational
  activities, aerobic dance.
• Make sure sport units are long enough to promote
  skill mastery implications for physical
  education and youth sport.

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How is it taught?

• Use inclusion style teaching so that activities
  are challenging and developmentally appropriate
  multiple levels of performance for the same task.
• Use a differential style of teaching that allows
  students to make some decisions (e.g., choice of
  activity, degree of difficulty, pace) higher
  intrinsic motivation and task engagement.
• Actively supervise children encouraging,
  prompting, providing feedback as you move around
  the class higher MVPA.

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How is the physical activity environment
structured?

• Do you reward improvement, effort and reaching a
  performance goal?
• Do you reward winning and doing better than
  others within the same class or team?
• Do you give the most praise when the victory
  comes easily to a student or an athlete?

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Why a Mastery Climate?

• A mastery motivational climate encourages
  students to set self-referent goals.
• A mastery motivational climate results in a
  positive attitude and increased effort.
• How do you know what type of environmental
  climate mastery or performance climate you
  are providing?

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TARGET

• The key to enhanced motivation for an active
  lifestyle and perceived physical activity
  competence.

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Develop Competence in a Mastery Climate

• Develop perceived and actual competence.
• Do it within a mastery climate.
• Be sensitive to individual differences, but keep
  you eye on the target healthy, active
  lifestyles.
• You cant do it alone.
• Educate parents and significant others replace
  Did you win? with Did you have fun? or Did
  you improve?

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Do you make a difference?

• Absolutely!
• You are professionals, passionately promoting
  active, healthy lifestyles.

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Best wishes and good luck!