Sami Yli-Piipari

Fundamental movement skills and physical fitness as predictors of physical activity: A 6-year follow-up study

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which fundamental movement skills and physical fitness scores assessed in early adolescence predict self‐reported physical activity assessed 6 years later. The sample comprised 333 (200 girls, 133 boys; M age = 12.41) students. The effects of previous physical activity, sex, and body mass index (BMI) were controlled in the main analyses. Adolescents’ fundamental movement skills, physical fitness, self‐report physical activity, and BMI were collected at baseline, and their self‐report energy expenditure (metabolic equivalents: METs) and intensity of physical activity were collected using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire 6 years later. Results showed that fundamental movement skills predicted METs, light, moderate, and vigorous intensity physical activity levels, whereas fitness predicted METs, moderate, and vigorous physical activity levels. Hierarchical regression analyses also showed that after controlling for previous levels of physical activity, sex, and BMI, the size of the effect of fundamental movement skills and physical fitness on energy expenditure and physical activity intensity was moderate (R2 change between 0.06 and 0.15), with the effect being stronger for high intensity physical activity.

The association between motivation in school physical education and self-reported physical activity during Finnish junior high school A self-determination theory approach

The main purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the role of motivational climates, perceived competence and motivational regulations as antecedents of self-reported physical activity during junior high school years. The participants included 237 Finnish students (101 girls, 136 boys) that were 13 years old at the first stage of the study. Students completed the motivational climate and perceived competence questionnaires at Grade 7, motivation towards physical education questionnaire at Grade 8, and self-reported physical activity questionnaire at Grade 9. A path analysis revealed a path from task-involving motivational climate via perceived competence and intrinsic motivation to self-reported physical activity. Perceived competence and intrinsic motivation were statistically significant mediators between task-involving motivational climate and self-reported physical activity. This finding supports the four-stage causal sequence model of motivation.

Predictive Role of Physical Education Motivation: The Developmental Trajectories of Physical Activity during Grades 7-9.

In this study we examined adolescents’ physical activity (PA) stability as well as individual differences in PA across grades 7–9. In addition, we tested the predictive role of adolescents’ self-determination and goal orientations in physical education at grade 6 in relation to their PA development. Adolescents’ (N = 812) self-reported PA was measured five times and physical education motivation once. Results revealed a decreasing trajectory of PA, with individual differences diminishing over time. Although boys’ showed a consistently higher PA level, gender did not moderate the change in PA. Finally, self-determination and task orientation (boys only) predicted PA levels but did not predict change in PA.

Examining the Growth Trajectories of Physical Education Students’ Motivation, Enjoyment, and Physical Activity: A Person-Oriented Approach

The study examined the growth trajectories in 757 (M age = 12.71) Finnish middle school students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with their enjoyment and physical activity. In addition, the study aimed to examine the role of intrinsic and extrinsic physical education motivation in the development in adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity by identifying adolescents’ subgroups. Adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity declined, intrinsic motivation was stable, and extrinsic motivation increased across middle school. Adolescents with highest levels of intrinsic motivation and moderate to high levels of extrinsic regulation had the highest levels of enjoyment and physical activity.

Results from Finland's 2014 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

The Finnish 2014 Report Card on Physical Activity (PA) for Children and Youth is the first assessment of Finlands efforts in promoting and facilitating PA opportunities for children and youth using the Active Healthy Kids Canada grading system. The Report Card relies primarily on research findings from 6 Research Institutes, coordinated by the University of Jyväskylä. The Research Work Group convened to evaluate the aggregated evidence and assign grades for each of the 9 PA indicators, following the Canadian Report Card protocol. Grades from A (highest) to F (lowest) varied in Finland as follows: 1) Overall physical activity-fulfillment of recommendations (D), 2) Organized sport participation (C), 3) Active play (D), 4) Active transportation (B), 5) Sedentary behaviors (D), 6) Family and peers (C), 7) School (B), 8) Community and the built environment (B), and 9) Government (B). This comprehensive summary and assessment of indicators related to PA in Finnish children and youth indicates that Finland still has many challenges to promote a physically active life style for youth.

Physical Education Curriculum Reform in Finland

The Finnish education system has received worldwide attention due to the top academic performance of Finnish school students. Physical education, as an integral part of the Finnish education curriculum, potentially contributes to the overall success. The purpose of this article is to summarize Finnish physical education reform during the past decades and to review and critique recent literature that has examined the effectiveness of Finnish physical education programs. This review concludes that physical education has a solid foundation in Finnish schools and that it enjoys strong support in Finnish society. Although physical education contact time has diminished across four decades, the current basic education reform has begun to allocate more time and funding for elementary and middle school physical education. The literature review, however, revealed limited evidence on the effectiveness of physical education programs. In the future, robust studies are needed to provide evidence of the effectiveness of physical education. It is likely that with rigorous research evidence, the current efforts to allocate more time for physical education should be more easily justified and supported.

Relationships among perceived motivational climate, motivational regulations, enjoyment, and PA participation among Finnish physical education students

The influence of teacher-initiated motivational climate on cognitive, affective, and behavioural student outcomes has been highlighted as an area of future research. This study, grounded in self-determination and achievement goal theories, examined how teacher-initiated motivational climate can increase student motivation and positive affective responses in physical education (PE) along with their physical activity (PA) participation, and whether motivational climate has a longitudinal effect across middle school. In addition, we aimed to examine the role of positive affect in explaining the relationship between motivation in PE and out-of-school PA participation. Our sample comprised 540 adolescents (277 boys, 263 girls, median age 13) and they responded to self-report questionnaires measuring their perception of motivational climate in PE classes (Motivation Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire), motivational regulations (Physical Education Motivation Scale), enjoyment (Sport Enjoyment Scale), and PA participation (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Research Protocol) twice at both Grades 7 and 9. Structural equation model analyses produced three main findings. First, the study showed that intrinsic motivation was the vital component of motivation that transferred the effect of learning-oriented climate to long-lasting enjoyment in PE context. Second, performance-oriented climate had a long-lasting effect on introjected and extrinsic regulations and amotivation. Finally, the study showed enjoyable experiences in PE to transfer intrinsic motivation into PA participation. The findings of the study extend our understanding on how teacher-initiated motivational climate in PE can lead to an increase in PA participation during middle school.

Kinematic-based sedentary and light-intensity activity detection for wearable medical applications

A sedentary lifestyle is becoming common for many individuals throughout the United States; however, this comes with a health cost of various preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Many times, individuals are completely unaware of how his or her health has deteriorated because of the slow progression or the demands of a job. We seek to bring attention to these problems by identifying specific sedentary activities and propose that just-in-time interventions could be used to help individuals overcome some of these problems. Our solution involves wearable sensors and utilizes a kinematic-based activity recognition systems to identify sedentary and light-intensity activities. Our system is evaluated with a series of laboratory experiments that include data from 34 individuals and a total of over 1400 minutes of activity. Results indicate that our system has a classification accuracy of up to 95.4 percent across all activities.

K-Sense: Towards a Kinematic Approach for Measuring Human Energy Expenditure

Accurate energy expenditure monitoring will be an essential part of medical diagnosis in the future, enabling individually-tailored just-in-time interventions. However, there are currently no real-time monitors that are practical for continuous daily use. In this paper, we introduce the K-Sense energy expenditure monitor that uses inertial measurement units (IMUs) mounted to an individuals wrist and ankle with elastic bands to determine angular velocity and position. The system utilizes kinematics to determine the amount of energy required for each limb to achieve its current movement. Our empirical evaluation includes over 3,000,000 individual data samples across 12 individuals and the results indicate that the system can estimate total energy expenditure with a 92 percent accuracy on average.