The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health have confirmed significant and rapid weight gain during the early years of adulthood. The college years are highly influential in shaping adult physical activity (PA) behavior. Researchers have reported PA decreases and weight increases during the first two years in college. Although physical education credits are not required, many colleges offer curriculum-based interventions that demonstrated effectiveness upon completing the courses. However, limited studies are available concerning first year students’ PA changes by conceptual physcial education (CPE) courses. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of a CPE class as an intervention on promoting daily PA among freshmen.
Method:
Participants were students enrolled in the 3-credit first year CPE class consisting of 25 male students and 69 female students from a large southern state university. The class structured two lecture sections and one activity section per week. Accelerometers were distributed to students to measure their weekly moderate and vigorous PA (MVPA). Each student wore the accelerometer for seven days during the first week, a week in the middle and the last week throughout the semester. Repeated measure MANOVA was used to examine daily MVPA minutes in gender and days with and without the CPE class.
Analysis/Results:
The result of repeated measure of MANOVA revealed a significant time effect on the overall MVPA [Pillai’s Trace=.188, F(4,89)=5.136, p=.001, partial η2=.188.] Furthermore, the average daily MVPA on class-days increased significantly among the three time points while daily MVPA of non-class-days decreased [ F(1,92)=9.153, p=.003, partial η2=.09]. No gender differences were observed across the time points, however.
Conclusions:
The students enrolled in the CPE class tended to exercise more on class days. Their PA decreased on the days without the CPE class. Colleges should offer more CPE classes that promote MVPA to keep students away from being sedentary and maintain a physically active lifestyle.