Self-Reported Physical Activity of High School Students in Southern Maine

Abstract

Knowledge of high school students’ physical activity (PA) can assist in identifying areas of programmatic need within physical education (PE) and for out of school programs. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the PA levels and patterns of high school students in southern Maine. METHODS: Participants were 142 students (86 females, 56 males) from 4 high schools in southern Maine (one urban, one suburban, two rural). Mean age was 14.9 years with 87% of the sample in grade 9. The validated Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQA) was used in this study to assess PA. The PAQA asks participants to recall their PA during the previous 7 days. Surveys were administered to students enrolled in PE and were part of a larger study examining attitudes toward PA and PE. RESULTS: Mean overall score for the PAQA was 2.62+0.60 (1=low PA, 5=high PA), with a range of 1.18 to 4.29. Males were slightly more active than females overall (2.75+0.72 vs 2.53+0.66, p=0.068) and reported more PA during evenings (2.96+1.37 vs 2.50+1.29, p=0.044) and the weekend (2.70+1.08 vs 2.32+1.00, p=0.036). Students in urban (3.98+0.81) and suburban schools (4.30+0.76) reported significantly greater activity in PE classes than rural students (3.54+0.86) (p=<0.05) while students in rural schools (1.65+ 1.23) reported greater activity during lunch than urban (1.23+0.43) and suburban students (1.12+0.39) (p=<0.05). Jogging, walking, basketball, and soccer were the most cited activities overall. Females preferred walking, jogging, dance and skipping rope while males preferred jogging, basketball, walking and soccer. Overall, 10% reported daily activity while 14% reported no activity. In PE, 73% reported doing vigorous activity quite often. At lunch, 80% reported sitting. After school, 46% were very active while 28% reported no activity. During evenings, 29% reported being very active while 29% reported no activity. Over the weekend, 52% reported being very active 2 or more times, with 21% reporting no activity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide information on high school students’ PA from a sample of southern Maine schools. In addition to PA levels and patterns, knowledge of student preferences for PA would help in PA program development both in PE and for out of school programs.