Improve students' ability to link knowledge with real life practice, through enhancing children or teenagers' ability to think critically by way of making observations, posing questions, drawing up hypotheses, planning and carrying out investigations, analysing data and therefore improve their decision making is an educational challenge. Learning…

Physical education has been an institution in American schools since the late 19th century, and today almost all American children are exposed to physical education classes. It has often been claimed that physical education provides important benefits to public health. The purpose of this paper is to determine if physical education increases…

Of 79 overweight adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities who participated in a weight loss intervention, 73 completed the 6-month diet phase. The emphasis in the intervention was consumption of high volume, low calorie foods and beverages, including meal-replacement shakes. Lower calorie frozen entrees were recommended to control…

We examined if step-count goal setting resulted in increases in physical activity and walking compared to only monitoring step counts with pedometers among American Indian/Alaska Native elders. Outcomes included step counts, self-reported physical activity and well-being, and performance on the 6-minute walk test. Although no significant…

Perceived control and health are often closely linked in adulthood and old age. Little is known, however, about their time-ordered interplay at various phases of adult life. By applying dynamic models to four waves of data over 15.5 years from the Americans' Changing Lives Study, we examined time-ordered relations between perceived control and…

Obesity is widely recognized as a health risk, but it also represents a disadvantaged social position. Viewing body weight within the framework of stigma and its effects on life chances, we examine how perceived weight-based discrimination influences identity and physical health. Using national survey data with a 10-year longitudinal follow-up, we…

Background: Preschool children who are at risk have been shown to demonstrate developmental delays in their fundamental motor skills. The body of research on motor skill development of children indicates that these children, when provided with motor skill instruction, significantly improved their locomotor and object control (OC) skill…

Background: Among school-aged youth, we sought to identify characteristics associated with (1) exceeding screen time recommendations (ie, television/videos/video games more than 2 hours/weekday), and (2) exceeding screen time recommendations, the presence of a television in the bedroom, and obesity. Methods: Using 2007 National Survey of…

Background: To improve support and justi?cation for health promotion efforts in schools, it is helpful to understand how students' health behaviors affect academic performance. Methods: Fifth-grade students completed an online school-administered health survey with questions regarding their eating behavior, physical activity, academic performance,…

The purpose of this study was to examine agreement between the Walk4Life DUO pedometer (W4L; Walk4Life, Plainfield, Illinois, USA) and two criterion instruments in the measurement of physical activity. Participants (N = 189, M = 16.74 years, SD = 0.99) in high school physical education concurrently wore the DUO (i.e., comparison instrument) and…

Background: Given sparse knowledge on dissemination, this study sought to explore key benefits, barriers and contextual factors that are perceived to be important to the adoption and implementation of the "Community Guide's" evidence-based physical activity recommendations. Design: We conducted case studies in two states where extensive adoption…

School physical education (PE) experiences play a critical role in adolescents' physical activity (PA) levels. Teachers are crucial to students' initial experiences in PA; however, limited research has explored teachers' perspectives about PA during PE using in-depth qualitative research techniques. We conducted interviews with 25 current…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine (a) whether distance from home to school is a determinant of active commuting to school (ACS), (b) the relationship between distance from home to heavily used facilities (school, green spaces, and sports facilities) and the weight status and cardiometabolic risk categories, and (c) whether ACS has a…

This collection of fact sheets includes: (1) Bullying, Suicidal Behaviors, Violence, and Safety-Risk Behaviors among Middle School Students in West Virginia; (2) Dietary and Physical Activity Behaviors among Middle School Students in West Virginia; and (3) Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drug Use among Middle School Students In West Virginia.

In this study we examined adolescents' physical activity (PA) stability as well as individual differences in PA across grades 7-9. In addition, we tested the predictive role of adolescents' self-determination and goal orientations in physical education at grade 6 in relation to their PA development. Adolescents' (N = 812) self-reported PA was…