The National Children and Youth Fitness Study was developed to examine physical fitness of children, describe their physical activity patterns, and identify those activity factors that make children fit. Background, procedures, and issues from the study are explored. (DF)

Two experiments assessed the importance of sound duration for eliciting head orientation responses from newborn infants. Results suggest that newborns' head orientation response may reflect a motor program that is initiated by auditory input and then executed in a similar fashion regardless of further stimulation. (Author/AS)

"The Shape We're In" is a national public education initiative that places a media spotlight on physical activity and obesity to promote public awareness and spark dialogue and action across the country. The centerpiece is a five-part newspaper series delivered to newspapers nationwide. This community action guide begins by describing…

Describes the correlates of life satisfaction and desired control among 79 elderly residents by assessing residents at three points in time. Both life satisfaction and desired control were intercorrelated and related to other indices of psychological well-being at all three points in time. (Author/RC)

To compare the kinematic and kinetic effects of fatigue on the biomechanics of sprint running, male subjects were filmed performing a short maximal exertion sprint and a long fatiguing sprint. Observable differences in the productive muscular activity of the better and the poorer sprinters occurred during the ground-phase of their strides.…

Physical education should be considered a basic component of education since it contributes to the total development of the individual. However, physical education objectives have not been reached, in spite of research supporting the goals and a large percentage of students participating in physical education programs. (JN)

Six questions about performance and performance courses for the physical education major are: (1) skills and abilities possessed by physical education majors; (2) entry standards; (3) performance versus professional application; (4) relationship between professional education and performance courses; (5) relationship between disciplinary study and…

Cardiovascular endurance is defined as the ability of the heart, lungs, and circulatory system to provide the cells of the body with the necessary substances to perform work for extended periods of time. People beginning such a program need to have an understanding of warming-up, intensity, duration, and frequency of an exercise program. (JN)

Among the findings were that hyperactive Ss on placebo showed lower rates of task attention and higher rates of gross motor movement, regular and negative verbalization, noise making, physical contact, social initiation, and other responses than did normal Ss and hyperactive Ss on Ritalin. (Author/DLS)

Examined the effects of a physical activity program on low-fit 8- to 11-year-old children's activity, mile-run time, and average heart rate. Found that following the program participants were in their target heart rate zone 64% of the time and that mile-run times improved significantly from pre- to posttest. (Author)

Examined whether stages of change of exercise adoption appropriately addressed strenuous, moderate, and mild intensities of physical activity. Secondary analysis of four data sets (adolescents, college students, adults, and seniors) investigated transtheoretical model constructs for exercise adoption. Results supported the construct validity of…

Developed a valid, reliable physical education teachers' physical activity self-efficacy scale for teaching classes in which students were engaged in high levels of physical activity. Results offer preliminary support for the psychometric properties of this instrument, which can help understand physical education teachers' efficacy in overcoming…

Investigated the independent and combined effects of cardiorespiratory fitness and obesity on all-cause cancer mortality for women and men. Data from the Lipids Research Clinics Prevalence Study indicated that higher fitness level was a stronger predictor of reduced cancer mortality among men, while high body mass index was a stronger predictor of…

Tested the hypothesis that physical training (PT), especially high-intensity PT, would favorably affect components of the insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) in obese adolescents. Data on teens randomized into lifestyle education (LSE) alone, LSE plus moderate -intensity PT, and LSE plus high-intensity PT indicated that PT, especially high-intensity…

A study tested whether four students with mental retardation would substitute task-related behaviors for stereotypic behaviors when opportunity for active responding did or did not match level of motoric responding in a free-operant baseline. Students did substitute behaviors, with stereotypic behaviors occurring 1.5-14 times as much in the…