Russell L. Carson

Exploring the association between teachers’ perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion: the importance of teacher efficacy beliefs and emotion regulation

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion, and the role of teacher efficacy beliefs (related to handling student misbehaviour) and emotion regulation in this relationship. Additionally, we examined teacher turnover intentions in relation to emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 610 elementary, middle‐ and high‐school teachers using an online survey. Results indicate that despite the significant direct effect between the two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) on emotional exhaustion, both strategies failed to show a mediating effect between perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion. However, teacher efficacy in handling student misbehaviour was found to mediate the relationship between perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion. In turn, a significant relationship was found between emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. Furthermore, teacher perception of student misbehaviour was found to have a considerable indirect effect on teacher turnover intentions. Findings signify the importance of developing strategies that enhance teachers’ situation‐specific efficacy beliefs.

Comprehensive School-Based Physical Activity Promotion: A Review

Physical activity (PA) participation levels among youth remain well below national recommendations. Thus, a variety of strategies to promote youth PA have been advocated, including multifaceted, school-based approaches. One identified as having great potential is a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP). The goal of a CSPAP is to develop a school culture conducive to promoting lifelong PA across five integral components, each serving as a plausible point of intervention: (a) physical education, (b) PA during school, (c) PA before and after school, (d) staff involvement, and (e) family/community involvement. The purpose of this article is to provide an up-to-date review on all CSPAP components, propose the potential of such comprehensive interventions in increasing youth PA levels, and provide future directions for CSPAP research.

School-based physical activity promotion: A conceptual framework for research and practice

Despite public health concerns and the many recognized benefits of physical activity (PA), levels of participation among youth remain below national recommendations. To this end, a variety of strategies for promoting physical activity for youth have been advocated, including multi-faceted, school-based approaches. One that continues to be identified as having great potential is a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP). The aim of this article is to introduce a conceptual framework for school-based PA promotion that serves to stimulate, guide, and organize related research and practice. The CSPAP conceptual framework is a proposed framework, informed by existing science, recommendations, and a social ecological perspective with individual PA behavior as the epicenter. Discussed in turn are the four proposed interactive levels of influence (i.e., components, facilitators, leaders, and culture) and several integral elements proposed to operate at each level. The article concludes with a presentation of the utility of the framework for research and practice.

Emotional Exhaustion, Absenteeism, and Turnover Intentions in Childcare Teachers Examining the Impact of Physical Activity Behaviors

Drawing on Salmon’s (2001) unifying theory of the beneficial effects of physical exercise, we examined physical activity behaviors as an important, but understudied, buffer against experiences of emotional exhaustion, absenteeism, and turnover intentions in 189 childcare teachers. Structural equation modeling revealed that workplace and leisure-time physical activity were negatively related to emotional exhaustion, which in turn, was positively related to teacher migration and attrition intentions. Post-hoc analyses revealed indirect (mediated) effects between physical activity behaviors and teacher turnover intentions via emotional exhaustion. This theoretically driven model fit the data better than an alternative model whereby emotional exhaustion predicts physical activity behaviors.

Ecological momentary assessment: A research method for studying the daily lives of teachers

The purpose of this paper is to introduce ecological momentary assessment (EMA) as an effective approach for capturing teachers’ emotional states and behaviours over time. Although the implementation of EMA has a rich and successful history among social science researchers in general, traditional retrospective, self‐report methods for collecting teacher and teaching data remain the norm within the field of education today. This paper addresses this concern by describing the conceptual and methodological background of EMA, using methodological findings from a recent study of middle school teachers as a practical example. Results indicated that the advantages inherent in EMA research with teachers clearly outweigh the drawbacks. Teachers and researchers alike felt that the use of EMA via the handheld instruments of personal digital assistants (PDAs) yield meaningful within‐person data in an accurate and convenient manner. Based on the lessons learned from this study, future considerations are outlined for the incorporation of EMA methods via PDAs with teachers.

Certification and Duties of a Director of Physical Activity

JOPERD • Volume 83 No. 6 • August 2012 T he media coverage about childhood obesity initially appeared to sensationalize the issue. Yet, the evidence of the health risks associated with the increasing incidence of overweight and obesity makes it clear that obesity could cripple the current healthcare system and shorten people’s lives. As First Lady Michelle Obama stated when she launched her Let’s Move! initiative to reverse childhood obesity, “The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake” (The White House, 2010). In fact, for the first time in U.S. history, the current generation of children may be the first to live a sicker, shorter life than their parents (Olshansky et al., 2005). Finding creative and effective ways to improve the physical health and well-being of youths has become a matter of survival, as adult morbidity and mortality rates reflect the magnitude of the diseases associated with obesity. One approach is to develop a healthy lifestyle in children through the adoption of regular physical activity participation. Countless scientific studies have shown that children who meet the recommendation of 60 minutes or more of physical activity on most days of the week can reap substantial physical, mental, emotional, and social benefits (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2008). Schools are an ideal setting for promoting and establishing physical activity habits, given the amount of time most children spend in and around educational settings during their growing years (Institute of Medicine, 2006). Not surprisingly, school-based approaches focused on increasing physical activity opportunities for students through coordinated, multicomponent programming have taken center stage in recent years. One example is AAHPERD’s (2012b) Let’s Move in School (LMIS) initiative. Specifically, this initiative endorses the implementation of the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) model (figure 1). The goal of a CSPAP is to develop a school culture that is conducive to promoting lifelong physical activity using five integral components or points of intervention: the physical education program, staff involvement, beforeand after-school programming, and family and community involvement. In order for a CSPAP to meet its full potential, a director of physical activity (DPA) is needed (Beighle, Erwin, Castelli, & Ernst, 2009; Castelli & Beighle, 2007; Rink, Hall, & Williams, 2010). To train physical educators for this new role, a task force recently developed a professional development program endorsed by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) that certifies current teachers as a DPA, thus recognizing the physical education teacher as the local expert regarding such programming.

Physical literacy and Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to make a case for Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) to be the organizational framework for providing physical activity opportunities for children that is most likely to result in physical literacy. METHOD Beginning in 2010, the authors used multiple search engines to ascertain the existent literature surrounding physical literacy and physical activity interventions to identify common approaches to providing physically activity in and around school. Grounded in the Health Belief Model and the idea that physical literacy is a desired outcome of physical education, publications focused on each of the components of the CSPAP were synthesized to describe evidence-based practice. RESULTS There is adequate evidence to suggest that quality physical education, before/after school, during school, staff involvement, and family and community engagement can serve as logical points of intervention to provide increased opportunities for physical activity participation leading to physical literacy among children. CONCLUSIONS Since only 6% of all children participate in daily physical education classes and only six states offer K-12 physical education, the implementation of CSPAP may be the most logical avenue for providing greater opportunities for physical activity engagement that fosters physical literacy as a health-oriented educational goal.

Impact of trained champions of comprehensive school physical activity programs on school physical activity offerings, youth physical activity and sedentary behaviors

OBJECTIVE A quasi-experimental cluster-controlled design was used to test the impact of comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) professional development on changes in school physical activity (PA) offerings, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behaviors of 9-14 year-old children during school. METHODS Two groups of Louisiana elementary and middle school physical education teachers (N=129) attended a CSPAP summer workshop (95 in 2012=intervention, 34 in 2013=control) and were assessed on school PA offerings (teacher-reported; pre, mid, and post). During the 2012-2013 school year, intervention teachers received CSPAP support while implementing new school PA programs. MVPA and sedentary behaviors were assessed (accelerometry; baseline and post) on a sample of 231 intervention, 120 control students from 16 different schools. RESULTS Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that intervention teachers reported significantly more PA offerings during school (3.35 vs. 2.37) and that involve staff (1.43 vs. 0.90). Three-level, mixed model regressions (stratified by sex) indicated that students overall spent less time in MVPA and more time being sedentary during school, but the effects were significantly blunted among intervention students, especially boys. CONCLUSIONS This study provides preliminary evidence for CSPAP professional development programs to influence school-level PA offerings and offset student-level declines in MVPA and increases in sedentary behavior.

The Emotional Component of Service-Learning.

The interest in and acceptance of service-learning has insufficiently addressed the inextricable emotional linkage to all of its functions. Utilizing Coles’ (1993) conceptualization of the intricate role of emotion in service-learning, this study explored how and why emotion and feeling are central to college students’ service-learning experiences. Multiple data sources were collected across three consecutive semesters from a total of 42 college students who participated in the same service-learning program in southeastern United States. Inductive analyses revealed wide-ranging and ever-changing breadth of emotion were experienced across and within participating college students, particularly emotional states that reflected Coles’ hazards of “arrogance, anger, and bitterness” and satisfaction of “something done, someone reached.” Regardless whether satisfying or hazardous emotion states were felt, they were mainly the result of students’ previous service experiences and/or expectations. Implications of these results for future research and the design of service-learning programs are discussed.

Introducing the lifetime exercise and physical activity service-learning (LE PAS) program.

JOPERD • Volume 79 No. 1 • January 2008 I n August 2005, Hurricane Katrina pulverized the daily life once known to Gulf Coast residents. This storm, coupled with Hurricane Rita, which struck the Louisiana-Texas border nearly a month later, devastated a square-mile area greater than the size of Great Britain (DHS, 2006). The most notable effects were the breached levees and 80 percent fl ooding of New Orleans, leveled homes throughout coastal communities, and incapacitated, gridlocked roadways (Wikipedia, 2006). As a result, more than 275,000 Louisianans were forced to fi nd alternate housing (Louisiana Geographic Information Center, 2006), which mostly took the form of travel trailers and mobile homes provided by FEMA (DHS, 2006). Almost overnight, approximately 65 FEMA-run, short-term living communities cropped up throughout Louisiana (Singer, 2006). The state’s fi rst and largest makeshift community, dubbed “Renaissance Village,” opened in October 2005, and it was the site for the exercise and physical activity promotion initiative introduced in this article.