Scheduled for Research Consortium Free Communication: After School Programs for Children and Youth, Thursday, March 15, 2007, 8:45 AM - 10:00 AM, Convention Center: 336


Choices of After-School Physical Activity by Middle School Boys and Girls

Wenhao Liu, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA and Jianyu Wang, California State University, Bakersfield, Bakersfield, CA

Preparing students for a lifetime of physical activity (PA) is the major goal of school physical education (Rink, 2006), and lifetime sports, relative to team sports, are more likely to contribute to students' lifetime of PA because of their higher likelihood of carryover into adult (Darst & Pangarzi, 2002). Although much research has been done addressing school students' PA levels, little attempt has been made to examine students' choices of after-school PA. This study was intended to examine the choices of after-school PA made by school boys and girls. The Self-Administered Physical Activity Checklist (SAPAC) (Sallis et al., 1996) was administered to 187 (86 boys, 101 girls) middle school students, and the participants were also asked to report and specify any organized sport(s) in which they were currently involved. The twenty five activities reported on SAPAC were grouped into five categories. The average after-school PA time on the previous day was 165.27 minutes for boys and 159.16 minutes for girls, and the average numbers of activities participated in by boys and girls were 4.01 and 4.11 respectively. Based on the time spent in each PA category, the ranking of the PA categories for boys was team sports (soccer, basketball, etc.), 65.38 min, 39.56% of the total PA min; lifetime sports (swimming, tennis, etc.), 43.41 min, 26.27%; walking/jogging, 27.41 min, 16.58%; chores, 17.50 min, 10.59%; and games (hopscotch, hide and seek, etc.), 11.57 min, 7.00%, and for girls was team sports, 77.52 min, 48.71%; walking/jogging, 28.21 min, 17.72%; lifetime sports, 26.69 min, 16.77%; chores, 18.27 min, 11.48%; and games, 8.47 min, 5.32%. When the average PA time spent in each individual PA was ranked, the top three sports/activities for boys were baseball (17.50 min), soccer (17.13 min), and bicycling (15.93 min), and for girls were lacrosse (26.78 min), softball (16.68 min), and jogging (13.65 min). In addition, the results showed that the participation in organized sports contributed to 77.45% and 82.39% of the time in team sports for boys and girls respectively, but only 27.56% for boys and 22.87% for girls in lifetime sports. The findings indicate a continuously dominant position of team sports in students' after-school PA, and the participation in organized team sports contributes to this situation. It is suggested that more organized lifetime sports be provided so school students have more opportunities to participate in lifetime sports after school.


Keyword(s): exercise/fitness/physical activity, middle school issues, youth sports

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