Avigdor Zask

Prevalence and Correlates of Low Fundamental Movement Skill Competency in Children

OBJECTIVE: To describe the demographic and health-related characteristics of school-aged children with low competency in fundamental movement skills (FMS). METHODS: Cross-sectional representative school-based survey of Australian elementary and high school students (n = 6917) conducted in 2010. Trained field staff measured students’ height, weight, and assessed FMS and cardiorespiratory endurance (fitness). Information on students’ demographics and physical activity was collected by questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of students with low motor skill competency was high. Girls with low socioeconomic status (SES) were twice as likely to be less competent in locomotor skills compared with high SES peers. Among boys, there was a strong association between low competency in FMS and the likelihood of being from non–English-speaking cultural backgrounds. There was a clear and consistent association between low competency in FMS and inadequate cardiorespiratory fitness. For boys, there was a clear association between low competency in object-control skills and not meeting physical activity recommendations. Conversely, the odds of being inactive were double among girls who had low competency in locomotor skills. CONCLUSIONS: Low competency in FMS is strongly associated with lower cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity levels in children and adolescents. The characteristics of students with competency in FMS differ by gender and skills types and show that interventions need to target girls from low SES backgrounds and boys from non–English-speaking cultural backgrounds. The high prevalence of low competency in FMS among Grade 4 students indicates that FMS interventions need to start during the preschool and early school years.

Evidence, Ethics, and Values: A Framework for Health Promotion

We propose a new approach to guide health promotion practice. Health promotion should draw on 2 related systems of reasoning: an evidential system and an ethical system. Further, there are concepts, values, and procedures inherent in both health promotion evidence and ethics, and these should be made explicit. We illustrate our approach with the exemplar of intervention in weight, and use a specific mass-media campaign to show the real-world dangers of intervening with insufficient attention to ethics and evidence. Both researchers and health promotion practitioners should work to build the capacities required for evidential and ethical deliberation in the health promotion profession.

Young Driver Education Programs That Build Resilience Have Potential to Reduce Road Crashes

OBJECTIVE: The research aimed to explore associations between participation in 2 education programs for school-based learner drivers and subsequent road traffic offenses and crashes among a large cohort of newly licensed drivers. METHODS: DRIVE is a prospective cohort study of 20822 first-year drivers aged 17 to 24 in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Participants completed a detailed questionnaire and consented to data linkage in 2003–2004. Questionnaire items included year of participation in 2 specific education programs: a 1-day workshop-only program focusing on driving risks (“driver-focused”) and a whole-of-community program also including a 1-day workshop but also longer term follow-up activities and a broader focus on reducing risk-taking and building resilience (“resilience-focused”). Survey data were subsequently linked to police-reported crash and offense data for 1996–2005. Poisson regression models that adjusted for multiple confounders were created to explore offenses and crashes as a driver (dichotomized as 0 vs ≥1) after program participation. RESULTS: Offenses did not differ between groups; however, whereas the driver-focused program was not associated with reduced crash risk, the resilience-focused program was associated with a 44% reduced relative risk for crash (0.56 [95% confidence interval: 0.34–0.93]). CONCLUSIONS: The large effect size observed and complementary findings from a comparable randomized, controlled trial in the United States suggest programs that focus more generally on reducing risks and building resilience have the potential to reduce crashes. A large, representative, randomized, controlled trial is urgently needed to confirm road safety benefits and ensure evidence-based spending and practitioner recommendations in this field.

Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention: is movement skill sustained?

BackgroundMovement skill competence (e.g. the ability to throw, run and kick) is a potentially important physical activity determinant. However, little is known about the long-term impact of interventions to improve movement skills in early childhood. This study aimed to determine whether intervention preschool children were still more skill proficient than controls three years after a 10 month movement skill focused intervention: ‘Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools’.MethodsChildren from 18 intervention and 13 control preschools in NSW, Australia were assessed at ages four (Time1), five (T2) and eight years (T3) for locomotor (run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, slide) and object control proficiency (strike, bounce, catch, kick, overhand throw, underhand roll) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Multi-level object control and locomotor regression models were fitted with variables time, intervention (yes/no) and a time*intervention interaction. Both models added sex of child and retained if significant, in which case interactions of sex of child with other variables were modelled and retained. SPSS (Version 17.0) was used.ResultsOverall follow-up rate was 29% (163/560). Of the 137 students used in the regression models, 53% were female (n = 73). Intervention girls maintained their object control skill advantage in comparison to controls at T3 (p = .002), but intervention boys did not (p = .591). At T3, there were no longer intervention/control differences in locomotor skill (p = .801).ConclusionEarly childhood settings should implement movement skill interventions and more intensively target girls and object control skills.

Face validity and reliability of a pictorial instrument for assessing fundamental movement skill perceived competence in young children

OBJECTIVES To determine reliability and face validity of an instrument to assess young childrens perceived fundamental movement skill competence. DESIGN Validation and reliability study. METHODS A pictorial instrument based on the Test Gross Motor Development-2 assessed perceived locomotor (six skills) and object control (six skills) competence using the format and item structure from the physical competence subscale of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children. Sample 1 completed object control items in May (n=32) and locomotor items in October 2012 (n=23) at two time points seven days apart. Children were asked at the end of the test-retest their understanding of what was happening in each picture to determine face validity. Sample 2 (n=58) completed 12 items in November 2012 on a single occasion to test internal reliability only. RESULTS Sample 1 children were aged 5-7 years (M=6.0, SD=0.8) at object control assessment and 5-8 years at locomotor assessment (M=6.5, SD=0.9). Sample 2 children were aged 6-8 years (M=7.2, SD=0.73). Intra-class correlations assessed in Sample 1 children were excellent for object control (intra-class correlation=0.78), locomotor (intra-class correlation=0.82) and all 12 skills (intra-class correlations=0.83). Face validity was acceptable. Internal consistency was adequate in both samples for each subscale and all 12 skills (alpha range 0.60-0.81). CONCLUSIONS This study has provided preliminary evidence for instrument reliability and face validity. This enables future alignment between the measurement of perceived and actual fundamental movement skill competence in young children.

Six year follow-up of students who participated in a school-based physical activity intervention: a longitudinal cohort study.

BackgroundThe purpose of this paper was to evaluate the long-term impact of a childhood motor skill intervention on adolescent motor skills and physical activity.MethodsIn 2006, we undertook a follow-up of motor skill proficiency (catch, kick, throw, vertical jump, side gallop) and physical activity in adolescents who had participated in a one-year primary school intervention Move It Groove It (MIGI) in 2000. Logistic regression models were analysed for each skill to determine whether the probability of children in the intervention group achieving mastery or near mastery was either maintained or had increased in subsequent years, relative to controls. In these models the main predictor variable was intervention status, with adjustment for gender, grade, and skill level in 2000. A general linear model, controlling for gender and grade, examined whether former intervention students spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at follow-up than control students.ResultsHalf (52%, n = 481) of the 928 MIGI participants were located in 28 schools, with 276 (57%) assessed. 52% were female, 58% in Grade 10, 40% in Grade 11 and 54% were former intervention students. At follow-up, intervention students had improved their catch ability relative to controls and were five times more likely to be able to catch: ORcatch = 5.51, CI (1.95 – 15.55), but had lost their advantage in the throw and kick: ORthrow = .43, CI (.23 – .82), ORkick = .39, CI (.20 – .78). For the other skills, intervention students appeared to maintain their advantage: ORjump = 1.14, CI (.56 – 2.34), ORgallop = 1.24, CI (.55 – 2.79). Intervention students were no more active at follow-up.ConclusionSix years after the 12-month MIGI intervention, whilst intervention students had increased their advantage relative to controls in one skill, and appeared to maintain their advantage in two, they lost their advantage in two skills and were no more active than controls at follow up. More longitudinal research is needed to explore whether gains in motor skill proficiency in children can be sustained and to determine the intervention characteristics that translate to subsequent physical activity.

Interrater Objectivity for Field-Based Fundamental Motor Skill Assessment

In the past 10 years, a growing body of evidence has linked fundamental motor skills (FMS) proficiency to physical activity participation (Booth et al., 1997; Booth et al., 2006; Okely, 1999; Okely, Booth, & Patterson, 2001; van Beurden et al., 2003; Wrotniak, Epstein, Dorn, Jones, & Kondilis, 2006). With FMS proficiency becoming more significant for understanding factors that may influence young people’s physical activity, instruments and testing methods used in such research must be valid and reliable. Motor skill assessments on children and adolescents tend to be either process or product oriented. Process assessments (e.g., TGMD-2; Ulrich, 2000) are concerned with how the skill is performed (Burton & Miller, 1998), whereas product assessments (e.g., Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency; Bruininks, 1978a, 1978b; or The Movement Assessment Battery for Children M-ABC; Henderson & Sugden, 1992) are based on the skill execution outcome, such as time, distance, or successful attempts (Burton & Miller, 1998). In studies of motor skill proficiency and physical activity, researchers have used both process (Booth et al., 1997; Booth et al., 2006; Okely et al., 2001; van Beurden et al., 2003) and product assessments (Fisher et al., 2005; McKenzie, Sallis, Broyles, Zive, & Nader, 2002; Wrotniak et al., 2006). While both modes are useful in judging the physical competences of children and adolescents, process assessments have the advantage of allowing accurate identification of specific skill components that may need improving (Ulrich, 2000). An important aspect in studies concerning FMS proficiency is interrater objectivity (or interrater reliability), defined as the consistency or agreement in scores obtained from two or more raters (Goodwin, 2001; Posner, Sampson, Caplan, Ward, & Cheney, 1990). In a training setting, interrater objectivity is commonly determined as the relative number of times raters agree with an “expert” rating of skill proficiency (used as a gold standard for comparisons). However, during observation in a field setting, multiple raters may assess FMS proficiency without comparison to an expert rating, so the overall reliability of the raters is key. Additionally, examining the reliability of specific FMSs may help determine which skills are difficult to assess in the field. The Move It Groove It (MIGI) study used the Get Skilled: Get Active process-oriented motor skill assessment (New South Wales Department of Education and Training, 2000) to observe FMSs in a school setting and reported an overall kappa of .61 (van Beurden et al., 2003; van Beurden, Zask, Barnett, & Dietrich, 2002). Interrater reliability was determined during field observation periods on 48 scoring sets for every rater pair (10 raters total); results for each skill were not reported. Other motor skill studies (Booth et al., 1997; Booth et al., 2006; (New South Wales Department of Education and Training, 2000 Okely, 1999; Okely et al., 2001) used Get Skilled: Get Active protocol, but none reported interrater objectivity assessments. The purpose of the current study was to determine interrater objectivity for six FMS using the processoriented motor assessment tool Get Skilled: Get Active by live observation in a school field setting with adolescents. This study was part of a larger project known as the Physical Activity and Skills Study (PASS). Interrater Objectivity for Field-Based Fundamental Motor Skill Assessment

How active are rural children in Australian physical education

Physical education lessons offer a venue for children to accrue valuable and health-conferring time being physically active. The first Australian direct observational data are presented on activity of year 3 and 4 children during physical education. Analysis accounts for the nested nature of the data through multi level logistic regression using 13,080 records within 231 lessons within 18 randomly selected schools. Activity was analysed in relation to lesson context (focus of lesson), child gender, school year of child, teacher gender, lesson duration and start time. Children spent 36.7% of a lesson in moderate to vigorous and 12.9% in vigorous activity. Most of the lesson was spent in the context of management/instruction (37.4%), followed by games (25.0%), skill (21.4%), and fitness (14.7%). The highest level of moderate to vigorous activity was observed in the fitness lesson context (61.9%). followed by skill (46.4%), games (42.6%) and management/instruction (17.1%). Moderate to vigorous activity was significantly higher for boys than girls. There was no significant difference in moderate to vigorous activity in lessons led by male or female teachers. However vigorous activity was significantly higher for female led lessons. Children participated in less physical activity during physical education lessons timetabled in the afternoon, compared to physical education lessons time-tabled in the morning. Physical activity levels were not related to lesson duration. Physical education lessons can potentially be more active. However improvement rests on school capacity and may require a health promoting schools approach to implement curricular policy.

Applying the Ottawa Charter to inform health promotion programme design

There is evidence of a correlation between adoption of the Ottawa Charters framework of five action areas and health promotion programme effectiveness, but the Charters framework has not been as fully implemented as hoped, nor is generally used by formal programme design models. In response, we aimed to translate the Charters framework into a method to inform programme design. Our resulting design process uses detailed definitions of the Charters action areas and evidence of predicted effectiveness to prompt greater consideration and use of the Charters framework. We piloted the process by applying it to the design of four programmes of the Healthy Childrens Initiative in New South Wales, Australia; refined the criteria via consensus; and made consensus decisions on the extent to which programme designs reflected the Charters framework. The design process has broad potential applicability to health promotion programmes; facilitating greater use of the Ottawa Charter framework, which evidence indicates can increase programme effectiveness.

Psychometric properties of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) in a sample of Australian adolescents

Abstract This study examined the psychometric properties of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) using an Australian adolescent sample (n = 135). The MLQ is made up of two, five-item subscales – Presence (how meaningful one considers his/her life to be) and Search (a desire to discover more or new meaning in one’s life). A convenience sample of 135 high school students aged 12–18 years (M = 15.18 years, SD = 1.42) completed the questionnaire. Scale analysis results indicated the measure had satisfactory internal consistency, and confirmatory factor analysis results showed support for the proposed two-factor model. The MLQ appears to be a valid instrument for measuring life meaning in Australian adolescents. The key implications are discussed.