Abstract

Assessment of correlates of physical activity occurring at different times of the day, locations and contexts, is imperative to understanding children’s physical activity behaviour. The purpose of this review was to identify the correlates of children’s physical activity (aged 8–14 years) occurring during the school break time and after-school periods. A review was conducted of the peer-reviewed literature, published between 1990 and January 2011. A total of 22 studies (12 school break time studies, 10 after-school studies) were included in the review. Across the 22 studies, 17 studies were cross-sectional and five studies were interventions. In the school break time studies, 39 potential correlates were identified, of which gender and age were consistently associated with school break time physical activity in two or more studies, and family affluence, access to a gym, access to four or more physical activity programs and the condition of a playing field were all associated with school break time physical activity in only one study. Access to loose and fixed equipment, playground markings, size of and access to play space and the length of school break time were all positively associated with changes in school break time physical activity in intervention studies. Thirty-six potential correlates of after-school physical activity were identified. Gender (with boys more active), younger age, lower body mass index (for females), lower TV viewing/playing video games, and greater access to facilities were associated with higher levels of after-school physical activity in two or more studies. Parent supervision was negatively associated with females’ after-school physical activity in one study. This review has revealed a relatively small number of studies investigating the school break time and after-school periods in the specified age range and only a few correlates have demonstrated a consistent association with physical activity. This highlights the infancy of this area and a need for further investigation into time-specific physical activity behaviour so that interventions designed for these specific periods can target the important correlates.

Highlights

  • Physical activity (PA) behaviour is influenced by a complex interaction of factors in different domains, including intrapersonal, social and physical environment [1]

  • After reviewing the full-text of these studies in more detail, only 22 studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review, 12 of which related to school break time PA and ten studies related to after-school PA

  • The main reasons for exclusion of some full-text articles were: the age of the sample, the study design, the study was a duplicate, the school setting was a secondary school, the focus was a specific behaviour without reference to a specific time period, the dependent variable was habitual PA, the study did not measure potential correlates, and PA was not the dependent variable

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Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) behaviour is influenced by a complex interaction of factors in different domains, including intrapersonal (e.g. beliefs, attitudes and efficacy), social (e.g. peer, teacher and parental support) and physical environment (e.g. geographical location and topography) [1]. In 2005, Giles-Corti et al [10] called for increased specificity in correlate research that utilises an ecological framework Motivation for this statement [10] was prompted by the modest performance of PA interventions [8] and explanation of small amounts of variance in PA behaviour by behavioural models [11,12]. Two recent systematic reviews on the effectiveness of PA interventions in youth found 38% [7] and 47% [8] had a statistically significant, positive effect on PA, but the effects were small and short lived These modest outcomes may be in part due to an inadequate understanding of the primary correlates that impact PA behaviour for a particular population in a specific context. Researchers have acknowledged the limitations of these theoretical approaches and research is shifting towards the development and use of ecological models, which posit that behaviour is multidimensional and is influenced by an interaction of factors across intrapersonal, sociocultural and physical environment domains [10,15,18]

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