Students' Physical Activity Levels and Motivation in Dance Dance Revolution

Purpose:

As an interactive video game that requires fast-foot movement, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) has recently been incorporated into physical education. Currently at least several hundred schools in many states are using DDR as a regular part of their physical education classes (Schiesel, 2007). However, empirical work examining students' physical activity (PA) levels and situational motivation in DDR has been scarce. This study attempts to explore the mean differences of and correlations between students' PA levels and situational motivation in DDR, as well as gender and grade differences among the study variables.

Methods:

One hundred ninety urban junior high school students (7th-9th grades) participated in a 2-week DDR unit in physical education. Students' in-class PA levels were measured by ActiGraph GT1M accelerometers (Pensacola, FL) for one class in the second week. They also reported their situational motivation (intrinsic motivation [IM], identified regulation [IR], external regulation [ER] and amotivation [AM]) at the end of the class using a standardized questionnaire (Guay et al., 2000). Descriptive analyses determined students' percentages of time in various PA intensity levels (sedentary, light, and moderate to vigorous intensity [MVPA]) and situational motivation, and the relations between students' PA levels and situational motivation. A 2 x 3 (gender × grade) MANOVA was performed to examine the mean differences of students' PA levels and situational motivation by gender and grade.

Analysis/Results:

Students were motivated to participate in DDR (i.e., M_IM = 4.81, M_IR = 4.8), but their percentages of time in MVPA were extremely low (i.e., M_MVPA = 4.95%, M_light = 28.77%, M_sedentary = 66.28%). Pearson correlations yielded positive relations between time in MVPA and IM or IR (r s = .15) and between light PA and IM (r = .16). Inversely, sedentary time was negatively related to IM or IR (r = -.16 to -.18). The MANOVA yielded a significant main effect for gender, Wilks' Lambda = .92, F (7, 178) = 2.34, p = .03, η² = .08. Follow-up tests revealed that boys scored higher on IM and ER than girls did (p s < .05).

Conclusions:

The results revealed that students were not physically active in DDR as they spent far less than 50% of the class time in MVPA, although they were highly motivated for this activity. Future studies should focus on effects of skill levels on MVPA and strategies to maximize students' MVPA in DDR.