Goal content and attitudes toward physical activity among primary school students during COVID-19 conditional movement control order

Abstract

This study examined primary school students’ goal content and attitudes toward physical activity during COVID-19 Conditional Movement Control Order . The participants were 312 students comprising 149 males and 163 females aged 11 and 12 years old from 3 primary schools in Sarawak, Malaysia. Participants were administered the Malay version of the Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire Malay version (GCEQ; Chai et al., 2019) and Malay version of the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale (M-APAS; Jeswenny, 2019). The independent sample t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between gender for goal content in social affiliation, t(310) = -2.18, p = 0.030, and age groups for skill development, t(310) = 2.35, p = 0.019. In addition, there was a significant difference in learning for attitudes between gender, p = 0.034, and age groups, p = 0.035. Pearson correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between goal content variables and attitude variables ranging from a very weak correlation (r = 0.13, p = 0.05) to moderate correlation (r = 0.57, p = 0.01). These results suggest that sustainable interventions that integrate goal content and attitudes can improve long-lasting positive participation towards physical activity and promote a healthy attitude towards healthy living.