Do They Need Goals or Support? A Report from a Goal-Setting Intervention Using Physical Activity Monitors in Youth

Michal Bronikowski, Malgorzata Bronikowska and Agata Glapa
Additional contact information
Michal Bronikowski: Department of Physical Activity Didactics, University School of Physical Education, Krolowej Jadwigi 27/38, 61871 Poznan, Poland
Malgorzata Bronikowska: Department of Traditional Games and Ethnology of Sport, University School of Physical Education, Krolowej Jadwigi 27/38, 61871 Poznan, Poland
Agata Glapa: Department of Physical Activity Didactics, University School of Physical Education, Krolowej Jadwigi 27/38, 61871 Poznan, Poland

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between physical activity (PA) and different goal setting and strategies in youth. The study took into consideration different sources of support as well as gender variations. Classmate and Teacher Support scales were used to evaluate support in physical education (PE) classes, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was reported. Garmin Vivofit ® activity trackers were used during an 8 week-long intervention to count daily steps. Data was collected from 65 adolescents (mean age 17.2 ± 0.2), 74 young adolescents (mean age 15.3 ± 0.2) and 57 children (mean age 11.5 ± 0.4). An experimental design was employed, with “goal” and “do your best” groups given different step goal strategies. The results show that both groups achieved a comparable number of steps. Two-way ANOVA showed interactional effects between gender and teacher support. There were no such effects for MVPA and number of steps. Although classmate support in PE was reported to be reasonably high, the findings show that it does not play a significant role in increasing MVPA behaviors in youths. However, the problem of significantly lower support given to adolescent girls by PE teachers should be embedded into the teaching context of PE students and counteracted in school setting realities.

Keywords: youth; physical activity; goal strategy; classmate support; teacher support; activity monitors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/9/914/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/9/914/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:9:p:914-:d:78132

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().