Effects of behavioural skill training on cognitive antecedents and exercise and sport behaviour in high school students: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Abstract

ABSTRACT School-based physical education is a preferred setting to lay the foundations of a physically active lifestyle. However, the potential of behaviour skills to foster leisure-time physical activity has rarely been addressed in a physical education context. The goal of this paper was to replicate a prior cluster-randomised controlled trial, in which behavioural skill training resulted in significant improvements in adolescents' self-reported exercise/sport behaviour, exercise/sport intention, motivation, coping planning and self-efficacy. Students were recruited from a Swiss academic high school. One hundred and twenty eight students (52% girls) had complete data at post-intervention, and 108 students (53% girls) at 3-month follow-up. The intervention lasted six weeks and included three sessions. The same questionnaires were used as in the original study, and physical activity was assessed via accelerometry. Mixed linear regression models were used to examine the data with a random intercept for school classes. The results showed that the intervention did neither result in increased self-reported exercise/sport participation, objectively assessed physical activity, nor in improvements in the assessed cognitive antecedents of exercise/sport behaviour compared to the control condition. There seems to be considerable heterogeneity regarding the effects of physical education-based interventions, even in apparently similar populations. Timing might be critical for the success of a physical activity intervention, and interventions at the beginning of the academic year or in autumn might be more successful than interventions close to the students’ final exams or spring/summer.