School Day Physical Activity and Classroom Behavior in Disadvantaged Children

Abstract

Increased physical activity has been shown to improve classroom behavior in children. No study has examined the relationship between classroom level behavior and school day physical activity in disadvantaged children from low-income schools. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-sectional relationship between classroom level on-task behavior and average school day physical activity throughout one school week. METHODS: A total of 106 classrooms were recruited from five low-income schools from a school district located in the Mountain West Region of the U.S. Classrooms were recruited from the 1st through 6th grades and class sizes ranged from 16 to 28 students. On-task classroom behavior was assessed at the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic school year using momentary time sampling methods for an observation duration time of 15-minutes. Classrooms were stratified into those that achieved 80% on-task behavior and those that did not. Physical activity was assessed at the student level using Yamax pedometers and Actigraph accelerometers that were worn for the entire school day for one school week. Step counts and time in MVPA were averaged at the classroom level to account for clustering of observations within classrooms. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test was used to examine the relationship between a categorical classroom behavior variable and classroom-level physical activity. RESULTS: Classrooms that achieved at least 80% classroom behavior displayed higher school day step counts (Δ= 449 steps, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.26) and time in MVPA (Δ= 3.6 minutes, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.28) compared to classrooms that displayed lower classroom behavior. CONCLUSION: Classrooms that display higher levels of on-task behavior tend to record higher levels of average school day physical activity. The results provide further evidence of the relationships between favorable classroom behavior and physical activity. Future research needs to examine this relationship for potential causation and bi-directionality so that effective interventions can be employed.