What do teachers see? Perceptions of school-time physical activity programs on student behavior

摘要

In the United States, children are not meeting daily recommendationsfor 60 min of moderate・to・vigorous activity.1Because children spend a large portion of their days in school, ithas been further recommended that children accumulate 30 minof their physical activity (PA) during school hours.2 Our previousresearch has demonstrated with objective measures that only8%—9% of elementary school children meet this goal, with anaverage accumulation of 18 min/day.3,4 This finding is of concerngiven the numerous benefits that PA has not only on healthoutcomes,5-8 but also on academic achievement.9 For example,there is heightened awareness that children benefit from PAthroughout the school day in terms of attention to task, memory,behavior, and, ultimately, academic performance.10 Schooladministrators acknowledge this link, but still face barriers toincorporating PA for schoolchildren, including limited time andresources for physical education (PE) and recess.