Socialisation of the Primary School Child Into a Physically Active Lifestyle A Population Study

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Socialisation of the Primary School Child Into a
Physically Active LifestyleA Population Study
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Lifestyle Research encompasses the relationship
between person and environment Epidemiology
examines causal relationships

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Research Focus

• To increase understanding of lifestyle and health
  behaviour and its social context in the lives of
  young people
• The primary research approach is not
  epidemiological, but does not exclude the
  possibility of findings relevant to epidemiology

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Research Framework

• Physical activity behaviour is a complex
  interweaving of biological, social, psycho-social
  and cultural threads
• Framework developed from the hypothesised
  relationship between personal and social
  variables, physical activity and health

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Socio-cultural Factors
Biobehavioural
Health Well-being Status Genotype Gender
Social Integration Socio-economic Status Parental
Influence Primary Education
Physical Activity
Health well-being
Media influence
Psychological Factors
Environment
Motivation Knowledge Self Perception Attitude
Geographic Location Community Facilities TV
Viewing Time Season/Climate
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Research Questions

• What factors are significantly related to PA ?
• What are determinants / predictor variables ?
• Is the primary school experience associated with
  physical activity outside of school ?
• What are the activity patterns of Irish
  preadolescents ?

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Study Population and Sample

• Population
• 5th and 6th class pupils
• Equivalent age cohort 11-12 years (/- 1)
• Sample Size
• Total 1602 792 boys
• 810 girls
• Sampling Unit
• One class 5th or 6th
• Schools lt 4 teachers 5th and 6th combined
• Sampling area
• 13 counties dispersed Leinster, Munster,
  Connacht

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Sampling gender and denominational status

• Sample of Schools 62
•  
• Girls only schools 17
• Boys only schools 14
•  
• Co-ed schools 31
• Roman Catholic 95
• Church of Ireland 5

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Survey Method

• Researcher administered questionnaire
• - 45-60 minute interview
• - consistency of approach to recording data
• Social desirability must be anticipated in health
  behaviour studies.
• Reporting of the right response is suggested to
  arise in the school classroom context of
  research(Parke, 1996)
• Desirability bias not observed in response of
  Primary School pupils  

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Demographic ProfileNational pop. ratio
urban/rural (CSO,1997)
58 42 Sample population ratio
60 40
Percentage of pupils by school location
Town 30
City 30
Village 36
Rural 4
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Percentage of children in designated areas of
disadvantage

• 9 of schools registered under Designated Areas
  of Disadvantage scheme
• Predominance in Dublin, Cork and Limerick
• 61 of all disadvantaged pupils live in rural
  areas population lt 10,000
• Report on Educational Disadvantage (1995)

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Social Class

• Difficulty with coding of childrens responses
• Re-classified from 6 pt scale into 2 groups
• 46 of pupils in higher social classes
• 54 of pupils in lower classes (incl.unemployed)

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Measure of independent variable

• Physical activity index (constructed from the sum
  of)
• Frequency x MET value of activity (selection of
  33 activities)
• X age-adjusted value 1.13
• X 0.5 (30 minutes approx)
• MVPA accepted as activity gt 4.25 METS
• Index included mild to moderate PA
• long-term health benefits to be derived from this
  level of intensity
• Intensity at which much of childs PA is
  performed (Armstrong.N 1990)

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Measures of dependent variables

• Primary PE index (index constructed from
  aggregate of)
• Frequency of PE
• Experience of subject areas (none / some / lots
  of)
• Attitude to PE classes
• Participant status (school team / school club)

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Social environment

• Social Integration Status
• 6-item balanced rating scale
• e.g. how often do you feel lonely ? (very often /
  sometimes / never)
• Index range 5 18
• Parental Support Index (aggregate of 3 measures)
• parent encouragement
• parent role-modelling
• participation with family

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Measures of psychological variables

• Motivation 7-item list of motives
• e.g. to be like a sports star
• circle very important / important / not
  important at all
• Physical self-perception
• Physical subscale of the Perceived Competence
  Scale
• for Children Structured alternative format
• Example
•  Some children are good at all sports Other
  children are good at one or two sports
• Really true for me Sort of true for me Sort
  of true for me Really true for me
• ? ? ? ?
•  

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Health and Well-Being Status

• Aggregate of
• Symptom subscale of the malaise inventory
• 6 item well-being scale
• lower score indicates the more positive health
  status

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Results Physical Activity Index

• Index range 0 282 (1.75 outliers)
• Mean 82.03 Boys 82.07 Girls 66.18
• Significant decline in girls PA from 5th to 6th
  class
• Test for distribution normality (K-S z 0.064,
  p .000)
• Cases sorted into 4 activity groups
• low activity / moderate-low / moderate-high /
  highly active
• Criterion for low activity
• 1 period vigorous intensity activity per week
  (scores lt10)
• Cases gt10 systematically sorted into 3
  groups

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Distribution of physical activity index in 1600
children
200
100
y
c
n
e
u
Std. Dev 43.09
q
e
Mean 74.0
r
F
N 1600.00
0
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
8
6
4
2
0
.
8
6
4
2
0
8
6
4
2
0
0
0
0
0
.
.
.
.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Physical Activity Index
There were 28 outside values (gt 188) in
distribution of the index, representing 1.75 of
cases
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Box-plots of PAI by gender
outliers and extreme values
400
400
300
300
469
469
219
219
749
749
511
511
1085
1085
963
963
1093
1093
1003
1003
1184
1184
829
829
1095
985
508
1095
985
508
205
346
205
346
200
347
340
200
347
340
418
76
418
76
283
484
55
283
484
55
191
191
454
1083
454
1083
746
746
100
100
s
s
median
e
e
u
u
l
l
a
a
v
v
I
I
A
A
P
P
0
0
d
d
e
e
d
d
o
o
c
c
e
e
r
r
-
100
-
100
810
790
N
810
790
N
Girl
Boy
Girl
Boy
Respondent gender
Respondent gender
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Confines of playground activity
no skipping
40 of children disallowed 1 activity option 10
disallowed 2 options 6 confined to walking
or standing around. Only 45 had unlimited
opportunities for activity.
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Playtime activity by gender
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Frequency of PE
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Physical Education Index
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Relationship between physical education
experience and physical activity level ()
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Relationship between physical activity and social
integration
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• Children who are highly integrated in their
  social network are more active that those who
  have less contact with friends and/or those who
  have difficulty relating to others
• Competing hypothesis may also be true
  greater involvement in PA may lead to increased
  social integration
• Association between PEI, PA and social
  integration suggests a feedback type mechanism

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Physical self-perception within gender groups
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Physical activity and motivation
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Health and well-being status _____________________
___________ Social desirability bias was not
evidenced in 11-12 year old childrens response
to health and well-being questions.. Distribution
of scores shows that the clustering occurs at the
lower end of the distribution, reflecting the
more positive health status of the majority of
children.  
Cut-off for not healthy
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Frequency of malaise symptoms of children
Somatic symptom scores by percentages of children
in social class groups
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Multiple regression on physical activity index
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Diagnostics

• When the sample size is large, almost any
  goodness of fit test (e.g. Kolmogorov-Smirnov)
  will result in rejection of the null hypothesis
• For large data sets therefore, important to look
  not only at observed significance level but also
  at the actual departure from normality
• e.g. probability plots residuals casewise
  diagnostics of outliers in dependent variables

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Diagnostics testing the regression model
Figure 5.37 Residuals If the model is
appropriate for the data, residuals (estimates of
the true error) should follow a normal
distribution
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Conclusion

• Demographic, social and cultural factors
  contribute to highly active preadolescent
  population
• Activity choice extensive network of Gaelic
  games parallel to multicultural sports
• High activity level of rural schoolchildren
• Population density less than many European
  countries
• Independent mobility relatively safe in Ireland

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Conclusion

• Little evidence of the impact of socioeconomic
  status on activity behaviour in primary pupils
• Significant association between educational
  opportunity and lifestyle development
• Social integration status related to PA and to
  health/well-being
• Lifestyle choice is conditioned by life chances
  educational and economic
• Primary school the agent of socialisation best
  positioned to provide life chance opportunity
  for lifestyle development

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Physical Activity Comparative Data