Background/Purpose: The time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) has been considered a critical indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of structured physical activity (PA) programs, such as community-based PA programs (CDC, 2008). However, the MVPA may not provide adequate information for children with disabilities because they have different PA patterns. According to Lee (2003), students' achievement in structured programs is significantly influenced by how much they are appropriately engaged in the lessons. If there is a positive relationship between MVPA and engagement, the time spent in MPVA could be used as a good indicator of the program effectiveness for children with disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between MVPA and engagement of children with disabilities in a community-based PA program.
Method: Twenty-seven children with disabilities enrolled in a community based PA program participated in this study. Participants' MVPA was measured by accelerometers and time spent in MVPA was estimated using cutpoints established by Evenson et al. (2008). Participants' engagement time was directly observed by researchers using a momentary sampling method.
Analysis/Results: Multiple regressions were conducted with age, gender, and disabilities as covariates. The results indicated that participants' time spent in MVPA is not related to engagement, β= .33, p= .16. Total amount of PA was also not related to participants' engagement in the structured program, β= .22, p= .34.
Conclusions: Study findings suggest that time spent in MVPA may not be a sufficient indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of structured PA programs.
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