Impact of Recess Interventions on Children's Physical Activity—A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of recess interventions on children's physical activity (PA) levels and to examine which specific interventions/characteristics have more influence on children's PA. Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, ProQuest, SPORT Discus. Papers published between 1986 and 2012, published in the English language, and evaluating any recess intervention with PA as an outcome. Study outcomes were distilled into seven domains related to PA: age, gender, intervention type, intervention duration, duration of PA per intervention session, outcome measures, and study region. Effect sizes were pooled within and across studies for each domain separately. Moderator analyses were performed using gender, age, and total length of intervention. Twenty-three independent samples were provided from 13 studies. The estimated overall effect size for time in PA was .56 (SE .07), suggesting a positive and significant mean difference between pretest and posttest PA time after implementing a recess intervention. Differences in PA levels were moderated by age, duration and type of intervention, and type of outcome measures. CONCLUSION. The limited evidence suggests recess interventions can improve youth PA levels. Implications reinforce the importance of schools in advocating for recess during the school day. Strategies shown to increase student PA during recess should be implemented