There is a clear and well-documented link between physical activity (PA) and health. However, many youth do not participate in the recommended levels of PA in order to gain health benefits. Given the health disparities among urban youth, specifically among African American youth, and mindful of the lack of data for Arab Americans, the purpose of…

Purpose: Given the recent push to increase children's physical activity levels through whole-of-school approaches, the relationship between physical activity and academic achievement has received much attention. Therefore, this study sought to understand the relationship between academic achievement and healthy school transformations in urban…

The impact of Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAPs) on urban children's, educators', and parents' physical activity (PA) is relatively unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore overall changes in student, educator, and parent PA after an 8-month CSPAP-based program. This longitudinal, exploratory study implemented a…

The Detroit Healthy Youth Initiative is a 10-year partnership between the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and Wayne State University (WSU) with the goal of improving the quality of school health and physical education programs throughout the city schools. Drawing on the experiences of WSU and DPS faculty, administrators, teachers, and project staff,…

Adolescents are physically inactive and non-Caucasian adolescents achieve the least amount of physical activity. Hence, supporting teachers' efforts to increase their students' physical activity during physical education is important. We examined the influence of a social cognitive theory-based intervention on teachers' efficacy to teach…

Background: Many children and adolescents are physically inactive and become even less active as they age. USA high school students' rates of attendance in physical education (PE) classes sharply decline by grade with 73% of ninth graders attending PE, while only 31% of seniors attend. Non-Caucasian youth report the lowest levels of physical…

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the challenges of urban schools influence physical education teachers' emotional understanding and connections with their students and the implications on their teaching. Sixty-one elementary physical educators from an urban school district in the midwestern U.S. were interviewed multiple times (N =…

Background: It is critical to understand the contextual factors in schools that influence teaching behaviours and student learning outcomes. This study uses a contextual framework with four domain areas (personal, instructional, institutional, and societal) to take an in-depth look at urban/inner-city teachers' context and the enacted curriculum.…

Schools are frequently seen as the solution to social problems, and recent public health issues such as the near epidemic rates of obesity and diabetes are some of the newest pressures facing schools. This investigation is an exploration of physical education teachers' reactions to one school district's attempts to mandate a public health driven…