Derek Hales

Physical Self-Concept and Self-Esteem Mediate Cross-Sectional Relations of Physical Activity and Sport Participation With Depression Symptoms Among Adolescent Girls

The authors tested whether physical self-concept and self-esteem would mediate cross-sectional relations of physical activity and sport participation with depression symptoms among 1,250 girls in 12th grade. There was a strong positive relation between global physical self-concept and self-esteem and a moderate inverse relation between self-esteem and depression symptoms. Physical activity and sport participation each had an indirect, positive relation with global physical self-concept that was independent of objective measures of cardiorespiratory fitness and body fatness. These correlational findings provide initial evidence suggesting that physical activity and sport participation might reduce depression risk among adolescent girls by unique, positive influences on physical self-concept that operate independently of fitness, body mass index, and perceptions of sports competence, body fat, and appearance.

Interventions for Increasing Physical Activity at Child Care

Experts agree that physical activity is critical to childrens health and development. Child care is an ideal setting that could be used to increase physical activity given the large number of young children enrolled. To effectively address physical activity at child care, it is necessary to understand what strategies are most effective. This article reviews existing intervention studies targeting physical activity conducted within a child care setting (including preschools, nursery schools, and day care). Given the limited work in this setting, liberal criteria were used that allowed for inclusion of studies with diverse outcomes (physical activity, physical activity-related, motor skills) and a variety of research designs (randomized control, quasi-experimental, single group). Searching six databases, 1355 studies were located, and 19 met inclusion criteria. Half of the studies that assessed intervention impact on physical activity reported significant findings. All five studies measuring motor skills and eight assessing physical activity-related outcomes demonstrated generally positive findings. Although the variety of outcome measures and research quality made it difficult to draw conclusions, findings do provide encouragement that regularly provided, structured physical activity programs can increase the amount and intensity of physical activity that children receive and improve childrens motor skills. These studies also demonstrate that the organized child care setting provides multiple targets for intervention beyond structured activity programs; however, additional studies are needed to explore such opportunities.

An instrument to assess the obesogenic environment of child care centers.

OBJECTIVES To describe protocol and interobserver agreements of an instrument to evaluate nutrition and physical activity environments at child care. METHODS Interobserver data were collected from 9 child care centers, through direct observation and document review (17 observer pairs). RESULTS Mean agreement between observer pairs was 87.26% and 79.29% for the observation and document review, respectively. Items with lower agreement were primarily staff behavior, counting across the day/week, and policy classifications. CONCLUSIONS Although some revisions are required, the interobserver agreement for the environment and policy assessment and observation (EPAO instrument) appears to be quite good for assessing the nutrition and physical activity environment of child care centers.

Best-Practice Guidelines for Physical Activity at Child Care

Research has indicated that the child care center is a very strong predictor of preschool-aged childrens physical activity levels, making this an important setting to help young children obtain physical activity that is appropriate for their health and development. However, some evidence suggests that organized child care may not adequately support childrens physical activity needs. Although many organizations provide recommendations, guidelines, or standards for motor skill development and physical activity opportunities, no set of guidelines exist that directly target the overall physical activity environment at child care. Because of the lack of comprehensive recommendations, the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-assessment for Child Care best-practice guidelines for healthy weight development were created on the basis of an extensive review of existing guidelines, research evidence, and expert review. The purpose of this article is to present these physical activity best-practice guidelines and provide data on how these guidelines compare to current practice in a large sample (N = 96) of child care centers in North Carolina. These best-practice guidelines include recommendations for 8 unique components of the child care environment, including active opportunities, fixed play environment, portable play environment, sedentary opportunities, sedentary environment, staff behavior, staff training/education, and physical activity policies. Our results showed that only a few of the best-practice guidelines were achieved by a majority of the 96 North Carolina child care centers that participated in this study. Establishing comprehensive guidelines for physical activity at child care could result in higher activity levels and healthier children, but more research is needed.

Reliability and validity of the Healthy Home Survey: A tool to measure factors within homes hypothesized to relate to overweight in children

BackgroundThe contribution of the environment to the obesity epidemic is well recognized. Parents have control over their home environment and can, therefore, support healthy dietary and activity habits in their children by manipulating factors such as access to energy-dense foods, availability of physical activity equipment, and restricting screen time. This paper describes the development of the Healthy Home Survey and its reliability and validity. The Healthy Home Survey was designed to assess characteristics of the home environment that are hypothesized to influence healthy weight behaviors in children including diet and physical activity.MethodsWe recruited 85 families with at least one child between 3–8 years. The Healthy Home Survey was administered to parents via telephone and repeated in a random sample of 45 families after 7 days. In-home observations were performed within 14 days of the first Healthy Home Survey interview. Percent agreement, Kappa statistics, Intra-class correlation coefficients and sensitivity analyses were used to evaluate reliability and validity evidence.ResultsReliability and validity estimates for the Healthy Home Survey were varied, but generally high (0.22–1.00 and 0.07–0.96 respectively), with lower scores noted for perishable foods and policy items. Lower scores were likely related to actual change in the perishable foods present and the subjective nature or clarity of policy questions and response categories.ConclusionInitial testing demonstrated that the Healthy Home Survey is a feasible, reliable, and valid assessment of the home environment; however, it has also highlighted areas that need improvement. The Healthy Home Survey will be useful in future research exploring the relationship between the home environment and child weight.

Validity of Social-Cognitive Measures for Physical Activity in Middle-School Girls

OBJECTIVE The factorial validity and measurement equivalence/invariance of scales used to measure social-cognitive correlates of physical activity among adolescent girls were examined. METHODS Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to questionnaire responses obtained from a multi-ethnic sample (N = 4885) of middle-school girls from six regions of the United States. A cohort of 1893 girls completed the scales in both sixth and eighth grades, allowing longitudinal analysis. RESULTS Theoretically and statistically sound models were developed for each scale, supporting the factorial validity of the scales in all groups. Multi-group and longitudinal invariance was confirmed across race/ethnicity groups, age within grade, BMI categories, and the 2-year period between grades. CONCLUSIONS The scores from the scales provide valid assessments of social-cognitive variables that are putative mediators or moderators of change in physical activity. The revised scales can be used in observational studies of change or interventions designed to increase physical activity among girls during early adolescence.

A cross-sectional study of demographic, environmental and parental barriers to active school travel among children in the United States

BackgroundPromoting daily routine physical activities, such as active travel to school, may have important health implications. Practitioners and policy makers must understand the variety of factors that influence whether or not a child uses active school travel. Several reviews have identified both inhibitors and promoters of active school travel, but few studies have combined these putative characteristics in one analysis. The purpose of this study is to examine associations between elementary school children’s active school travel and variables hypothesized as correlates (demographics, physical environment, perceived barriers and norms).MethodsThe current project uses the dataset from the National Evaluation of Walk to School (WTS) Project, which includes data from 4th and 5th grade children and their parents from 18 schools across the US. Measures included monthly child report of mode of school travel during the previous week (n = 10,809) and perceived barriers and social norms around active school travel by parents (n = 1,007) and children (n = 1,219). Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with log-link functions were used to assess bivariate and multivariate associations between hypothesized correlates and frequency of active school travel, assuming random school effect and controlling for the distance to school.ResultsThe final model showed that the most relevant significant predictors of active school travel were parent’s perceived barriers, specifically child resistance (Estimate = −0.438, p < 0.0001) and safety and weather (Estimate = −0.0245, p < 0.001), as well as the school’s percentage of Hispanic students (Estimate = 0.0059, p < 0.001), after adjusting for distance and including time within school cluster as a random effect.ConclusionsParental concerns may be impacting children’s use of active school travel, and therefore, future interventions to promote active school travel should more actively engage parents and address these concerns. Programs like the Walk to School program, which are organized by the schools and can engage community resources such as public safety officials, could help overcome many of these perceived barriers to active transport.

Objectivity, reliability, and validity for a revised push-up test protocol

When executing a push-up an individual lowers the body to a down position and then raises it to an up position. A down position often used in recent years is a 90° angle at the elbows (90° push-up) as in FITNESSGRAM. Several researchers have found the interscorer objectivity and stability reliability for 90° push-up scores to be low. The purpose of this study was to (a) estimate the interscorer objectivity and stability reliability for scores from a revised push-up test protocol and (b) obtain evidence concerning the validity of interpretations based on revised push-up test scores. Interscorer objectivity was estimated for a score of one scorer and stability reliability was estimated for a score obtained on 1 day. Four studies were conducted. In the first study, pilot study, the revised push-up test protocol was developed and refined. In the second study, objectivity study, the push-up test was administered once to 49 female and 31 male college-aged students. Two scorers independently scored each student. Interscorer objectivity coefficients of·75 for women and ·88 for men were obtained. In the third study, objectivity and reliability study, the push-up test was administered on each of 2 days to 89 female and 63 male college-aged students. Two scorers independently scored each student on each day. Interscorer objectivity coefficients of ·97 and ·95 for women and ·98 and ·99 for men were obtained. Stability reliability coefficients of ·90 and ·93 for women and ·95 and ·95 for men were obtained. In the fourth study, validity study, validity was estimated using a logical approach, group difference approach, and criterion approach. There were 58 male and 48 female college students in the validity study. The revised push-up test protocol is very similar to protocols presently used and as expected the men scored significantly (p < .01) better than the women on the revised push-up test. The correlation between revised push-up scores and number of bench press executions with a percentage of the body weight was·80 for women and ·87 for men. The interscorer objectivity and stability reliability coefficients are very acceptable. Sufficient validity evidence was provided that the revised push-up scores relate to the amount of arm and shoulder girdle strength and endurance a person has to move the body weight.

Assessing and Promoting Physical Activity in African American Barbershops: Results of the FITStop Pilot Study

This study assessed the feasibility of recruiting African American men in barbershops, assessing their physical activity, conducting physical measurements, and gauging their interest in barbershop-based health research. The authors recruited African American shop owners (n = 4), barbers (n = 6), and customers (n = 90) from four barbershops in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, during 2009. The participation levels were high among owners (100%), barbers (67%), and customers (81%). In addition to completing a self-administered survey, 57% (51/90) of the customers completed physical measurements. According to self-reported data, 34% (30/88) of the customers met national physical activity recommendations within the last week. Customers expressed moderately high interest in learning more about health at barbershops and joining a barbershop-based physical activity contest. The estimated recruiting cost per customer was

Physical Activity at Child Care Settings: Review and Research Recommendations

105.92. Barbershops offer an effective setting for recruiting African American men and conducting physical measurements as well as an interesting possible location for conducting future interventions.