Transcript Promoting Active Healthy Lifestyles

Promoting Active Healthy
Lifestyles
From Principles to Practice in Youth
Sport and Physical Education
Lois S. Hale, Ph.D.
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin
The nature of the challenge
• Inactivity is one of the ten leading global
causes of death and disability (WHO, 2003)
• More than 60% of adults do not engage in
sufficient levels of physical activity to
benefit their present and future health
(WHO, 2003)
The Caribbean Challenge
• There are substantial amounts of physical
inactivity, especially among women.
• A large proportion of the Caribbean
population is not interested in making
positive lifestyle changes.
• According to the World Health Organization
(WHO) 55 per cent of the people in the
Caribbean will be hit with diabetes in the
next 15 years.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Challenge
• A majority of adults know that regular physical
activity is good for their health; less than 20%
meet the criteria of 30 minutes of regular
exercise 3 times/week. (National Health Survey, 1995)
• Less than a third of Trinidadians exercise.
(The West Indian Medical Journal, 2002)
• A longer life span and an increasingly sedentary
lifestyle have led to an increase in chronic
diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
(Ministry of Health, T&T)
But the children?
• A substantial proportion of children and
adolescents are not sufficiently active (over
50% of adolescents) (Stone et al., 1998)
• 60% of today’s children in the United States
manifest as least one modifiable risk factor
for the development of coronary artery
disease (Strong, et al., 1992)
Then there is obesity
• Obesity and overweight rates are on the rise
among young people in Trinidad and
Tobago.
• In the adult population of Trinidad and
Tobago, 16.8% are estimated to be obese
and 31.4% overweight.
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2003)
• Over 60% of young women in Barbados are
overweight. (Caribbean Youth Environment Network)
P r e v a le n c e o f o b e s ity ( B M I 3 0 + ) a m o n g
a d u lt s 3 1 - 5 0 y e a r s b y g e n d e r
35
30
25
M a le s
15
f e m a le s
%
20
10
5
0
JAM
GUY
TR I N
DOM
But, I teach physical education
and coach sport.
What can I do?
Support from Heath Ministries
• Develop a “healthy school” policy or
program.
• Require physical education and include it in
the formal exam system.
• Broaden the range of sports and physical
activities to include non-competitive
activities such as aerobics and dance to
encourage participation among girls.
(Recommendations from a meeting of Caribbean Health
Ministers, 2000)
What you do makes a difference
• Evidence suggests that physical activity
behavior patterns acquired during childhood
and adolescence are likely to be maintained
throughout the life span (Stucky-Robb &
DiLorenzo, 1993).
• Adolescents who had more experience with
physical activity and sports prior to age 15
had a higher psychological readiness for
physical activity at 30 years of age
(Engstrom, 1991).
The purpose of this presentation
is
• To identify several psychosocial factors
believed to influence current and future
levels of physical activity among children
and adolescents.
• To discuss the implications that these
factors hold for the design and delivery of
physical education and sports programs that
promote the adoption of active lifestyles by
children and young people.
The assumptions upon which the
presentation is based:
Assumption #1
1. Schools should be responsible for
providing appropriate and adequate
physical activity for all young people
through physical education programs as
well as through school sports programs
and after school leisure-time physical
activity initiatives.
Assumption #2
2. Physical education and sports program
personnel should endorse the adoption and
continuation of an active healthy lifestyle
by students and athletes as a major
program goal – recognizing that turning
young people on to physical activity for a
lifetime is a high priority.
Assumption #3
3. The degree of success that physical
education and sports programs will have
in meeting the program goal in number 2
is dependent upon
• what is taught,
• how it is taught, and
• the structure of the physical activity
environment in which children and young
people participate.
Psychosocial Factors
Self-Efficacy and Perceived
Competence
Motivational Climate
Social Support
Perceived Benefits
Gender
What is taught? (Curriculum)
How is it taught? (Instruction)
How is the physical activity
environment structured?
(Context)
Current & Future
Levels of Physical
Activity
Figure 1. The influence of
psychosocial factors and the
nature of physical education
and sports programs on
physical activity levels.
Psychosocial Factors
What psychosocial factors influence
physical activity levels of children
and adolescents?
Self-Efficacy
• Self-efficacy: the confidence we have in
being able to do a certain thing under
particular circumstances
• An important correlate of physical activity
participation for children and adolescents –
choice, effort, and persistence.
• In a study of the determinants of physical
activity among children in 5th and 6th grades
and again in 9th and 10th grades, the only
positive predictor for girls was self-efficacy
(DiLorenzo, et al., 1998).
Perceived Competence
• The degree to which children participate in
MVPA is related to their perceptions
concerning their fitness competence
(Kimiecik, Horn, and Shurin, 1996)
• Children with low perceptions of their
abilities to learn and perform sport skills do
not participate or they drop out, whereas
children who persist have higher levels of
perceived competence (Weiss &
Chaumeton, 1992)
Perceived Competence
• Self-perception of competence is influenced
by personal dispositions (task and/or ego
goal orientations) and experiences with
others.
• YOU convey to your students and athletes
your expectations, values, and beliefs;
YOU shape their definition of achievement
– improvement vs. beating others.
Motivational Climates
• Mastery or task involved climates
– effort, learning, and self-reference goal
achievement are promoted
• Performance or ego involved climates
– winning and social comparisons of ability
are advocated
Mastery Climates
• Children – task oriented.
• Late childhood – influenced by others.
• Depending on expectations and rewards,
they may continue to be task oriented or
may adopt both task and ego orientations.
• The physical education and sport
environment we structure for them makes a
difference.
Mastery Climates
•
•
•
•
•
•
higher task orientation
greater feelings of satisfaction
less boredom
higher perceived ability
higher intrinsic motivation
the belief that effort and ability are causes of
success (Attribution theory)
• a more positive attitude toward physical
education
(Weigand & Burton, 2002)
Social Support
• Parents, siblings, friends, and others
influence participation in PA.
• Boys perceive significantly more modeling
and support from friends for PA than girls
(Stallis, et al., 1996).
• Perceived social support has more impact
on PA levels of girls than boys - lack of
support is the real issue for girls.
(DiLorenzo, et al.).
Social Support vs. Social Control
• behavioral reactance: individuals perceive
significant others to be exerting social
control, rather than providing social
support, so they act in the opposite way.
• The degree to which 5th and 8th graders
believed they were able to easily regulate
their physical activities (perceived
behavioral control) was shown to predict
intent to participate (Craig, Goldberg, &
Dietz, 1996.)
Why children play
• In study upon study, fun has been shown to
be the primary reason children engage in
sport and physical activity – the primary
perceived benefit.
• Children prefer unstructured, self-directed
physical activity outside of school (Walton,
et al., 1999).
Is that what we provide for them?
Perceived Benefits: Fun,
Enjoyment and Excitement
What happens to our play on our way to
becoming adults? Downgraded by the intellectuals,
dismissed by the economists, put aside by the
psychologists, it was left to the teachers to deliver
the coup de grace. “Physical education” was born
and turned what was joy into boredom, fun into
drudgery, pleasure into work.
(Sheehan, 1978, pp. 72-73)
Why Children Are Active
• Enjoyment of physical education
• Afternoon time for sport and physical
activity.
• Family support for physical activity
(support more important than parental
physical activity behavior).
Gender
• Generally, girls are less active than boys from
childhood on with these differences increasing
throughout adolescence.
• There are differences in
– preference for competitive activities,
– perceived competence in physical activity, and
– perceived benefits from participation.
How do we deal with these gender differences?
Recommendations for Practice
Now we know what we know, what
do we do?
What should we teach?
• Offer activities that encourage high rates of
physical activity.
• Allow for some choice of activities.
• Include noncompetitive activities, partner
and small group activities, lifetime and
recreational activities, aerobic dance.
• Make sure sport units are long enough to
promote skill mastery – implications for
physical education and youth sport.
How is it taught?
• Use inclusion style teaching so that activities are
challenging and developmentally appropriate –
multiple levels of performance for the same task.
• Use a differential style of teaching that allows
students to make some decisions (e.g., choice of
activity, degree of difficulty, pace) – higher
intrinsic motivation and task engagement.
• Actively supervise children – encouraging,
prompting, providing feedback as you move
around the class – higher MVPA.
How is the physical activity
environment structured?
• Do you reward improvement, effort and
reaching a performance goal?
• Do you reward winning and doing better
than others within the same class or team?
• Do you give the most praise when the
victory comes easily to a student or an
athlete?
Why a Mastery Climate?
• A mastery motivational climate encourages
students to set self-referent goals.
• A mastery motivational climate results in a
positive attitude and increased effort.
• How do you know what type of
environmental climate – mastery or
performance climate – you are providing?
TARGET
The key to enhanced motivation for
an active lifestyle and perceived
physical activity competence.
Mastery Climate
Performance Climate
Absence of variety and
Tasks
challenge
No participation by
Students given choices
students in decisionAuthority
and leadership roles
making processes
Private and based on
Public and based on social
Recognition individual progress
comparison
Cooperative learning and Groups formed on the basis
Grouping
peer interaction promoted of ability
Based on mastery of tasks
Based on winning or
Evaluation and on individual
outperforming others
improvement
Challenging and diverse
Time
Time requirements
adjusted to personal
capabilities
Time allocated for learning
uniform for all students
Develop Competence in a
Mastery Climate
• Develop perceived and actual competence.
• Do it within a mastery climate.
• Be sensitive to individual differences, but
keep you eye on the target – healthy, active
lifestyles.
• You can’t do it alone.
• Educate parents and significant others;
replace “Did you win?” with “Did you have
fun?” or “Did you improve?”
Do you make a difference?
Absolutely!
You are professionals, passionately
promoting active, healthy lifestyles.
Best wishes and good luck!