Fitness, PA, Perceived Competence, Parental Support, and Literacy Outcomes in the REACH After-School Sports Program

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the REACH program in increasing physical activity (PA) levels, cardiorespiratory fitness, perceived competence, self-efficacy, parental support, and literacy across a year-long after-school PA intervention. Participants (N = 78) were students who volunteered from after-school program at either one of the two intervention schools or the control schools. Data are presented from two time points: Baseline (Aug/Sep 2017), and Post (end of the school year in May 2018). Data consisted of PA levels measured by PAC-Q, PACER test, Harter’s Perceived Competence questionnaire, parental support, and literacy tests. School differences in post-intervention scores were found in three (parental support, literacy, PACER) of seven intervention-related measures. Most notably parental support was higher in intervention schools over the control and PACER scores were higher in one intervention school than the control. The results demonstrate that data collection methods may need to be reconsidered in diverse low-income schools. The dramatic amount of missing data and lack of student effort points to students perhaps being overwhelmed with standardized tests and performing tasks for researchers. This leads to a dilemma in data collection in after-school programs in low-income schools: researchers need data to understand what is happening but how are students being served by the data collection process? Researchers should consider new approaches to collect data in low-income urban after-school programs to limit loss of data and to make the data collection meaningful to student participants

Middle School Students’ Free-living Physical Activity on Physical Education Days, Non-physical Education Days, and Weekends

This study measured students’ free-living Physical Activity (PA) in order to examine activity patterns of youth. Students (N=221) in 12-classes wore accelerometers to measure their PA over six weeks in and out-of-school while participating in a fitness unit. PA was significantly higher during Non-PE-Days and PE-Days than on Sundays. PA was significantly higher during baseline than weeks five and six. There were no significant differences between boys and girls in the number steps taken. Eighth-grade students had the lowest PA levels. On average, the students were attaining 60 minutes of MVPA. Students, however, did not often reach national recommendations. Girls reached their national recommendations five out of six weeks on days that they participated in PE. The results suggest that specific subgroups, such as adolescent girls, are getting the recommended PA but only when the PA is structured. A spike in PA during the first week suggested a possible motivational effect of the accelerometer