A Comparison of Children's Physical Activity Levels During School and Out-of-School Activities

Abstract

Attempts to incorporate additional physical activity into the school day have been investigated through the use of classroom-based physical activity programs, such as the Take 10! curriculum (Stewart, Dennison, Kohl, & Doyle, 2004; Rowe, 2005). Studies utilizing Take 10! have yielded mixed results, and to date, the outcomes of Take 10! have not been clearly documented. Further, there is a need to examine children's physical activity levels during Take 10! as compared to other in-school and out-of-school activities. PURPOSE: To investigate children's physical activity levels during Take 10!, as compared to activity levels in PE, recess, lunch, and after-school/ weekend activities. METHODS: Participants were thirty-six children (boys n = 16, girls n = 20) between the ages of 9 and 12 (M age = 10.03 years, SD = 0.81) who were randomly selected from 4th and 5th grade classrooms of two public elementary schools in the Southern United States. Activity levels (average activity count/min) were measured using Actical activity monitors (Mini-Mitter Co., Inc., Bend, OR) over a continuous seven-day period. A 2(gender) x 5(activity) ANOVA with repeated measures on the second factor was used to test for differences in activity levels during Take 10!, PE, recess, lunch, and after-school/ weekend activities. RESULTS: Results revealed a significant main effect for activity (F = 9.01, p < .01) with no gender by activity interaction (F = 0.2, p = .94). Pairwise follow-up analyses yielded higher activity levels during Take 10! (M = 2775.0 counts/min, SD = 1308.0 counts/min; p <.05) than during PE (M = 1813.7 counts/min, SD = 1550.1 counts/min; p<.05), lunch (M= 1371.5 counts/min, SD =450.9 counts/min; p<.01), and after school/weekend activities (M = 1480.4 counts/min, SD = 514.3 counts/min; p <.01). Although not statistically significant, there was a trend suggesting children tended to be more active during Take 10! as compared to recess (M = 2169.7 counts/min, SD = 1389.0 counts/min; p = .14). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study demonstrate that when teachers implement the Take 10! curriculum, children's activity levels can increase. Based on these results, it appears that Take 10! is an effective tool to increase children's activity levels and decrease risk for obesity.