The study that is going to be conducted will investigate the difference physical activity participation levels ( PAPL) in children at secondary level, who attend private school and public school to see if the reasons lie in the financial capabilities of t

How dose physical activity participation differ between state and independent schooling at secondary level?

Introduction

the advantages of taking part in physical activity are evident and it’s a very important aspect of life in which it helps to maintain a healthy life style, reduce the risk of obesity, stress, depression and anxiety ( Da conceicao et al, 2010). With only 30% of girls aged 15-16 hitting physical activity guild lines and boys only hitting 47% (Baker et al, 2005) it’s hard to ignore the statistics and try and hypothesise what’s causing this, as children should be doing at least 60 minutes of exercise a day (Eslinger et al, 2008), which could be split up into different activities throughout the day. Da conceicao (2010) said that not only can children who are inactive can be a financial burden not only on themselves but their families and society.

Why is there such a low level of physical activity participation in adolescence? Does where the attend school have an impact on their physical activity participation levels?

The study that is going to be conducted will investigate the difference physical activity participation levels ( PAPL) in children at secondary level, who attend private school and public school to see if the reasons lie in the financial capabilities of the schools. There are little studies done in the area and it would seem very beneficial to conduct the study to see if different school settings contributes ti the time children spend participating in physical activity. Past studies have shown that not only can participation in physical activity be beneficial to one’s health but also academically (Taras, 2005) as physical activity levels can help boost blood circulation to the brain which in turn increases the levels of norepinephrine and endorphins. This helps eliminate the effects of stress and anxiety helping an individual to me more focused and calm thus helping them to focus on their academic work (Taras, 2005). Now is the best time to investigate all the possibilities of what causing a decline in PAPL , one which is the different schooling backgrounds to see if this could possibly be one of the things effecting PAPL, as the lack of physical activity is alarming and all possibilities should be investigated (Drane et al, 2001). With obesity levels at their highest there is no better time to act then now (gerver et al, 2003) as this is a problem and children out the future, as obesity can follow them into their adult life making it a lifelong problem.

Literature review.

There seems to not be a lot of study’s in regards to the difference in PAPL within different schools ( Drane et al, 2001). There are many reasons concerning this matter ranging from the privacy private schools want for their students as parents could object to their children taking part (Drane et al. 2001), or they feel the decline in PAPL has nothing to do with where a child goes to school (Taras, 2005). This study could help shed some light on the decline in numbers which in turn could pave the way for the possibility of more studies and research done in this area. To fully understand the reasons effecting PAPL in adolescence every possibility needs to be explored (Barr-Anderson et al, 2010). Carrillo et al, (2008) found that children in public school participated in physical activity more than those attended private school especially at weekends, this may be due to the fact that private schooled children main focus is on the academic work oppose to physical work (Carrillo et al, 2008). This could also be down to the fact that a lot of children attending public school come from disadvantage homes and back grounds thus most homes not owning a car oppose to private schooled children parents owning cars thus driving them to school (Drane et al, 2001), which can make children lazy and get them into the habbit of driving insed of walking, as children from disadvantages backgrounds sometimes have no choice but to walk to and from school (Drane et al, 2001). There is little evidence3 to show that any of these aspect are the cause of the decline in physical activity as funding from the government doesn’t cover the cost of research in this area (Drane et al, 2001). An increase of computer device and television programs have helped contribute to the levels on inactivity ( Da Conceicao et al, 2010) would children from private school be subject to spend less time on these technology devices due to the work load or stricter discipline at home? ( Da Conceicao et al, 2010). It is possible that the community, regional and cultural aspect of society has an negative effect on how a child spend their time, for example if a child is from a privileged back ground then they would have more access to sports facilities oppose to children from disadvantage background as there sports facilities might be too far away or be too much for their parent to afford ( Da Conceicao et al, 2010). Also children from a disadvantages background may not have the state of the art or lasts technology due to the household income, thus having to find ways out of the house to entertain themselves. Drane et al, (2001) concluded that public schooled children showed higher PAPL then those at private school, males who attended public school showed there was 50% of student participation in physical activity oppose to only 36% on male students at private school. Females from public school also showed higher levels of PAPL with 33% oppose to only 26% of females participation in physical activity. Why do females display lower levels of PAPL? This may be due to the fact that females don’t want to participate in vigorous contact sport and would rather do something more famine then participate in sports or (Drane et al, 2001;Da Conceicao et al, 2010). Drane et al (2001) concluded that this is a critical time to enforce the importance of physical activity on children especially females as the figures are alarming and are only going to get worse, which in time can help pave the way for when they reach adulthood and help reduce the serious effect of inactivity.

Accelerometer literature review.

Over the past decade there has been an increase in the use and awareness of the accelerometer for the use of analysing the levels of a person’s physical activity in everyday life (Bouten et al. 1994; welk. 2002). This is done through the use of piezoelectric transmitters which are activated when movement occurs, speeds up or slows down (Bouten 1994; Chen et al. 2004; Judd. 2007), which then sends a signal to the monitor which records the data. There are three planes of movement uniaxial (one), biaxial (two), and traxial (three)(Judd. 2007)., and with a 3% ...

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Accelerometer literature review.

To best get an accurate reading from a child’s movement is triaxial plane of movement, due to the fact that it is more sensitive to movement then uniaxial plane of movement a. It also measures oxygen consumption which helps provide a more accurate reading especially for running and free living movements(Rowland. 2007). The accelerometer can hold up to 28 days’ worth of data (Ockene et al, 2009) but to full analyses the data I will only need to record 7 days’ worth of data. To fully grasp the data needed the subjects will have to wear the accelerometer for 10-11 hours a day to full analyse the subjects physical activity level in the schooling environment and the home environment.

There has been study’s done that require the raw data to have a cut-off point (Durocher et al, 1994), this is done with the use of energy expenditure prediction equations through the use of a calorimeter under different activities conditions (Ayabe et al, 2004). This evaluates the oxygen consumption, but this can contribute to displaying errors in results (Bouten et al, 1994). Bouten (1994) did a study using accelerometer and found that when all data was collected and combined there was only 67% chance of changes in energy expenditure from physical activity. This consisted of 2-32% variance in energy expenditure when the physical activity levels were inactive and 23-50% variance in energy expenditure for walking.

The study concluded that the best prediction was acquired within the triaxial planes of movement . The pedometer is another form of equipment used to measure physical activity levels ( Eston et al, 2009). although this use of equipment for the study going to be done isn’t suitable, mainly due to the fact it can’t record non-locomotors movements ( Welk, 2002), and also doesn’t measure as much variables as the accelerometer which can make more room for error in results.

Research question

Are there any significant differences in physical activity participation levels between private and public schools?

Is there a difference in daily physical activity participation between public and private school children?

Is there a difference across the day?
Is there a difference between boys and girls?

Methodology.

Participants.

Two groups of students N=30 total N=60, one group from private school N= 30 and one group from public school N=30. Aged 11- 16 with a mixture of some sports participators and non-sports participators. The study will use both females and male adolescences to be able to narrow down where the differences is and possible hypothesis why there is a difference, different age groups will be enable the experiments to locate which age the decline in PAPL occurs and how much it declines.

Sample size.

Public school: N=30 students aged 11-16 made up on males (N=15) and females (N=15)

Private school: N=30 students aged 11-16 made up on males (N=15) and females (N=15)

Equipment.

Accelerometer.- this form of equipment helps measure a lot of variables in which to amylases which will end in better results to analyse and help eliminate false reading form non movement. The accelerometer is more reliable and is more sensitive then other equipment such as pedometer ( Eston et al, 2009).

Multiple choice diary- the diary will be pre frilled out with options in which to choose from to help make the diary part of the experiment easier for the subject helping reduce the chance of the subject not filling it out or filling in false information which will result in errors in results.

Pre questionnaire- this will help with a base line for the data to help point out what their participation levels are at on a normal day, this helps to set a marker for how they perceive their physical activity levels to be at.

design .

the study to be conducted will consist of the collection and analysis of physical activity participation levels of children aged 11-16, both in school and after school. This will be done through (subjective) multiple choice diary day by day and also with the subject wearing the accelerometer (objective). The best way to successfully analyses the research question is to use both Qualitative and quantitative research is to be able to eliminate any errors in results and to ensure that all aspects of PAPL are examined and weighed up for the final results.

Statistical analysis.

Firstly the first hypothesis will be analysed through and independent T-Test sample and the second hypothesis will be analysed with a two way ANOVA. The independent T-Test will help to see if there is a significant difference between public and private schools PAPL thus enabling us to either accept or reject he hypothesis. The two way ANOVA will help the examiners to locate where the difference lies thus helping the experimenters to conclude the study.

Implications.

due to the age of the subjects they could easily lose interest or not be true full within the diary. Or they could copy other data from other participants, or schools may not want to participate or removal of the device within collection time. Lastly the failure of equipment could result in errors in results.

If these problems do occur then incentives so not to lose interest also highlight the benefits schools gain from taking part. Test the equipment for faults and highlight in instruction letter that copying other peoples data will be screened for.

Reference list

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Barton, J,.et al. (2010). physical activity levels of children living in different built environments.. prevented medicine. 50 (1), 193-198.

Bouten,V,C,.et al. (1994). Assessment of energy expenditure for physical activity using triaxial accelerometer. medicine and science in sports exercise. 26 (12), 1516-1523.

Bouten, V,C,.et al. (1997). A triaxial accelerometer and portable data processing unit for the assessment of daily physical activity. IEEE Transaction of biomedical engineering. 44 (3), 136-147.

Chen, K.Y. and Bassett, D.R., Jr. (2005) The technology of accelerometry- based activity monitors: current and future. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 37, S490-S500.

Da Conceicao, I,S,O,.et al. (2010). physical activity and sedentary lifestyle among children from private and public schools in northern brazil. Rev saude publicia. 44 (6), 2-8.

Drane, W,. et al. (1). physical activity behaviour of adolescents in public and private high schools. journal of health behaviour. 25 (42-49), 2001.

Eston, G, R,.et al. (2008). Physical activity content of motiv8 PE compared to primary school PE lessons in the context of children overall daily activity levels. Journal of exercise science and fitness. 6(1) 26-33.

Eston, G, R,.et al. (2009). Relationship between accelerometer- assessed physical activity and health in children: impact on the activity- intensity classification method.. journal of sports science and medicine. 8 (1),

Eston, R.G, Rowlands, A.V.,& Inglendew, D.K,.(1998). Validity of heart rate, pedometry, and accelerometry for predicting the energy cost of children’s activities. Journal of applied physiology. 84. 362-371.

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Assessing free-living physical activity using accelerometry: Practical issues for researchers and practitioners.‟ European Journal of Sports Science. John mores university. United kingdom: Liverpool.

Judd, B,.(2007) using accelerometers in a data acquisition system. United electronic industry, Inc. USA: Massachusetts.

Okene, K, J,. et al.(2006). The handbook of healthy behaviour change. Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity among Children: Discrepancies in Accelerometry-Based Cut-off Points. France. 89(14).

Peir ´o Velert C, Devis Devis J, Beltran Carrillo VJ, Fox KR. Variability of Spanish adolescents’ physical activity patterns by seasonality, day of the week and demographic factors. EurSport Science. 2008;8(3):163-171.

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