RC Grant Findings: Psychological Predictors of Children's Recess Physical Activity

Background/Purpose The prevalence of overweight/obese children is a growing concern. There is substantial evidence for the relationship between low levels of physical activity and increases in weight status among children. A focus on the relationship between psychological factors and how children choose to spend their free time may yield ideas for interventions designed to reduce childhood obesity. Recess is a regularly occurring “free choice” time period in elementary school children's days that is currently overlooked as an opportunity to help them discover enjoyable physical activities and increase their motivation to engage in more movement, thereby forming habitual physical activity patterns that potentially reduce obesity. Most previous research has not taken into account the tenets of self-determination theory which state that children must feel their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are satisfied in order to become intrinsically motivated (Deci & Ryan, 1985).The purpose of this study was to examine how satisfaction of basic psychological needs during recess predicted children's recess physical activity motivation and actual recess physical activity behavior according to gender, weight status, and race/ethnicity.

Method Fifth grade children (N=203; 50.2% male; 71.7% healthy weight; 51.7% Caucasian) completed modified versions of the basic psychological need satisfaction scale (BNSC: Deci et al., 2001) to assess recess autonomy, competence and relatedness and the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A: Ryan & Connell, 1989) to assess recess motivation. Children wore sealed pedometers for 6 consecutive days of 30 minute mid-day recess to obtain data on (1) number of steps taken and (2) time spent physically active.

Analysis/Results MANOVA revealed significant gender differences in number of steps, time, relatedness and recess motivation and weight status differences in relatedness and competence. Multiple regression analyses indicated that recess motivation was significantly predicted by the combination of all three basic psychological needs for males and specifically competence for females and healthy weight children. Steps and physical activity time were both significantly predicted by autonomy need satisfaction for males and recess motivation for females.

Conclusions Findings support self-determination theory and provide initial insight on how to motivate children to actually be more physically active during their free time with consideration for demographic differences. Specific interventions can be designed with these findings in mind to further inform professional practice.