Engaging youth in traditional physical education exercises or ball sports can be a challenging task, especially when they prefer novelty, entertainment, or excitement in their leisure-time activities. In addition, many youth are unaware of the opportunities that exist to exercise or recreate in nature, often preferring to spend time indoors…

Background: This study examined the association between fitness change and subsequent academic performance in Taiwanese schoolchildren from 7th grade to 9th grade. Methods: The 7th graders from 1 junior high school district participated in this study (N=669). Academic performance was extracted from school records at the end of each grade.…

This paper considers girls' participation in running and other outdoor physical activities in their local areas in London, UK. The paper is concerned with the operation of risk discourses in and around this participation and looks at the way that such discourses impacted on girls' opportunities to take part in physical activities that required…

The Central Texas Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Middle School Project is a 3.5-year school-based project aimed at promoting physical activity (PA), healthy eating, and obesity prevention among public middle school students in Texas. This article describes the CATCH intervention model and presents baseline findings from spring 2009.…

Although substantial inquiry has been made into fitness levels of students, there has been scant examination of knowledge in this domain. This article seeks to review and analyze research on student health-related fitness (HRF) knowledge mastery in K-16 programs by examining studies published in the literature. Two major results emerging from the…

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…

A debate over the quality of teacher education programs has been ongoing for nearly 100 years. The most current round in this debate started with "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and has escalated in recent years to involve an increasing number of participant-constituents, each of whom has voiced…

Background: Although psychological disengagement is a well-documented phenomenon in the academic setting, the attempts to identify its predictors are scarce. In addition, existing research has mainly focused on chronic disengagement and less is known on the determinants of situational disengagement. Aims: The purpose of the present study was to…

There is growing concern regarding childhood obesity and its impact on children's health, and many states and school districts have mandated that health assessments be conducted as part of physical education. Tools such as the FITNESSGRAM[R] can help teachers inform students and parents if students are above a healthy weight range. The FITNESSGRAM…

The present study reported on the modification of the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) to assess students' psychological need fulfillment in elementary school, middle school, and high school compulsory physical education classes. Data were collected from 817 5th and 6th grade students, 862 middle…

This purpose of this study was to examine student activity, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during secondary school physical education, using a recently validated systematic observation instrument termed the System for Observing the Teaching of Games in Physical Education (SOTG-PE). Thirty, single-gender high school (11-16 years) physical…

Background: The purpose of the study was to assess adolescents' perceptions of controllability and its relation to weight stereotypes as a function of gender. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-one seventh and eighth graders from physical education classes completed a perception of controllability questionnaire and weight stereotype explicit scale…

This study uncovers the predictive relationship of middle school students' ability beliefs (self-efficacy and expectancy-related beliefs) and incentives (outcome expectancy, importance, interest, and usefulness) to intention, cardiovascular fitness, and teacher-rated effort in physical education. Participants (N = 252; 118 boys, 134 girls)…

One of the most critical public concerns in the United States is the rapid increase in childhood obesity, partly due to the social and environmental changes (e.g., excessive TV and computer use, pressures of standardized testing, etc.) in the past few decades, which has resulted in less physical activity in school children's daily routines.…

Physical activity engagement during physical education is important for many reasons, including developing physical fitness and movement skills and promoting health. Much more is known about physical activity in elementary than secondary schools. We examined physical activity and how it was influenced by instructor-related and environmental…