Children’s Participation in Physical Activity: Are We Having Fun Yet?

Abstract

In recent years a tremendous amount of interest has devkloped toward understanding physical fitness of youth and its relation to health. For example, the June 1992 issue of Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport contained a feature section titled, Are American Children and Youth Fit? The lead article by Corbin and Pangrazi (3) challenged the current thinking that children today are unfit and that fitness levels are declining. Instead, the authors presented data demonstrating that using criterion-referenced health standards rather than normreferenced standards results in different conclusions about youth fitness than originally conceptualized. Specifically, they said there is little empirical evidence that children and youth are less fit today than in previous decades. However, Blair (2) argued that approximately 20% of children are probably at risk because of low fitness and that educators should make more vigorous efforts to help these children become more active. Freedson and Rowland (5) offered an alternative view, contending that perhaps too much emphasis has been placed on the importance of physical fitness (and fitness testing) and that more attention should be given to increasing regular physical activity in children and youth. A physically active lifestyle, they argued, is likely to lead to positive health outcomes throughout childhood and adulthood. They cited data which indicates that children's habitual physical activity levels are low and, more important, that these levels decline dramatically from childhood through adolescence. These data phrallel the sport psychology research on attrition from youth sport programs-that high participation frequencies in youth are followed by plummeting rates in adolescence, especially among females (1 1, 14). Freedson and Rowland concluded, possible age-related decline in physical activity level among youth in this country should be investigated, as this trend has important implications for how and when intervention programs to modify physical activity behavior are instituted (p. 134). This statement by Freedson and Rowland (5) alludes to the need for a motivational perspective regarding children's participation in physical activity. That is, why dohome children maintain and improve their physical activfty levels while others lose interest and quit? Moreover, the majority of papers addressing the need to keep children and youth physically active refer to the importance of