François Trudeau, Louis Laurencelle & Roy J. Shephard -Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Français
School physical education has influences on the total time of physical activity in youth and is becoming the predominant if not their exclusive source of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. It is also an environment for the socialisation and the «tracking» of sport and physical activity habits. The main objective of our research program is to explore how and why daily physical education during childhood and other early events can influence physical activity and sport behaviour later during adolescence and adulthood.
Participants were either from an experimental group that benefited from 5 h physical education per week vs, a control group with the normal program during primary school (40 min) during the year 1970 to 1977. They filled out questionnaires on exercise, including questions on physical activity frequency, attitudes, barriers and intention and participated to in-depth, semi-structured ethnographic interviews with the experimental and control participants previously involved in the Trois-Rivières study, to document 1) the meaning they give to physical education and sport for themselves and their children and 2) critical incidents and periods known to affect physical activity and sport. At this moment we have analyzed data for 49 participants. Preliminary results indicates: 1) that the majority of participants, either from the experimental or the control group wants an increase of time for school physical education, 2) advantages in term of measured PA and sport participation in experimental 35 years old women in 1995-96 disappeared and 3) there is trend for a higher rate of sport participation in the experimental group (72.73% vs. 64.71%). The absence of significant difference could be partially explained by the end of the experimental program at the transition from primary to secondary school, where a tremendous decline in PA has been observed by many authors.
School years play a very obvious role in the intellectual development and socialisation of all
individuals, but also influences the total time of physical activity in children and adolescents.
School is becoming more and more the predominant if not the exclusive source of moderate-tovigorous
physical activity in children and adolescents. Furthermore, it also influences the
socialisation process and the «tracking» of sport and physical activity habits. The main
objective of our research program is to explore how and why daily physical education during
childhood and other early events can influence physical activity and sport behaviour later during
adolescence and adulthood. The specific aims are: 1) to understand how daily physical
education impacts life periods known to negatively affect physical activity level and sport
participation (i.e. leaving school, entering the labour market and leaving the parental home, birth
of children, etc.), 2) to investigate how subjects perceive physical education, physical activity
and sports according to the quantity and quality they received during childhood, and 3) to
document how physical education and sport for their children, are perceived by the study
subjects.
Methodology. The purpose of the present research program is to shed some light on the whys
and hows of quantitative observations on adult physical activity made in the second phase of
the longitudinal study, using a qualitative approach. We will document unknown intermediary
sport and physical activity habits between the end of the experimental phase (1970-1977) and
follow-up (1995-1998). We also want to explore the perceptions of subjects on physical activity
and sport according to their involvement in their respective group, in primary school
(experimental vs. control). Questionnaires data. Before the semi-structured interview, the
subjects will fill out 2 questionnaires: 1) the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (Craig
et al. 2003), and 2) Enquête sociale et de santé study questions on exercise, including
questions on physical activity frequency, attitudes, barriers and intention. Qualitative data. We
will conduct in-depth, semi-structured ethnographic interviews with the experimental and control
subjects previously involved in the Trois-Rivières study. Subjects will be randomly selected
within each of the groups they were in during primary school. Researchers will use an interview
theme list to generate data on exercise behaviours from the end of primary school to the
present and questions about their intention to exercise. We will use a mixed
qualitative/quantitative approach for data analysis, following the semi-structured interview. In
particular, we want to: 1) explore the meaning they give to physical education and sport for
themselves and their children, 2) comments on critical incidents and periods known to affect
physical activity and sport, between the experimental and control subjects.
We also added some projects to the original program to answer 3 relevant questions for sport
participation: 1) Influence of birth trimester on physical activities and sports: Is there a relative
age effect for physical activity? 2) Is fitness level in childhood associated with physical activity
level as an adult? and 3) what is the long term effect of daily physical education on bone mass
density and food behaviour.
SCRI 2007 Presentation Slides
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