Social-ecological and biographical perspectives of principals’ involvement in comprehensive school physical activity programs: a person-centered analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background The World Health Organization recommends a whole-of-school approach to promoting youth physical activity (PA) and there are several examples of this approach internationally. In the United States, the comprehensive school PA program (CSPAP) model serves as the national framework for school-based physical education (PE) and PA. Part of the implementation support structure for a CSPAP is staff involvement. Although there is a growing body of research that examines the CSPAP-related involvement of school staff, few studies have focused on school principals. Principal involvement is critical to the success of school-based PA programming. Investigating principals’ CSPAP involvement is a necessary step toward maximizing efforts to leverage CSPAP implementation. This study drew upon social-ecological and biographical perspectives and used a person-centered analytic approach to investigate principals’ CSPAP involvement. Purpose Building on recent research using a variable-centered approach to examine school principals’ CSPAP involvement in the U.S., the purpose of this study was to examine distinct profiles among these same principals in terms of their CSPAP involvement, social-ecological based perceptions of CSPAPs, and satisfaction with personal experiences in K-12 PE. Methods Stratified random sampling was used to recruit a national sample of 2941 public school principals in the U.S. for participation in an electronic survey that measured CSPAP involvement, social-ecological perceptions (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental), PE satisfaction, and several demographic, background, and school context variables. A total of 291 principals completed the survey. Only data from respondents who indicated their school has a CSPAP (N = 198) were used for this study. Data analysis involved principal component analysis and latent profile analysis. Results All PE satisfaction items were found to be good measures with factor loadings ranging from .879 to .962 and a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .932 (previous research provided validity and reliability evidence for the CSPAP involvement and social-ecological measures contained in the survey.) The optimal latent profile model included four profiles, which were labeled Average (average scores for all three social-ecological factors), Above Average (above average scores for all three social-ecological factors), Below Average (below average scores for all three social-ecological factors), and Low-Interpersonal (high scores for the intrapersonal and environmental factors and low scores on the interpersonal factor). Latent profiles did not vary significantly on any measured demographic, background, or school context variables. The Kruskal–Wallis test yielded significant differences across the four latent profiles on both PE satisfaction (H (3) = 24.527, p < .001) and CSPAP involvement (H (3) = 34.469, p < .001). Conclusion This study supports the idea that there are distinct groups of principals, based on intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental perceptions regarding CSPAP implementation. Additionally, PE satisfaction was an important predictor of latent class membership, which in turn predicted principals’ CSPAP involvement. Future interventions to increase principals’ CSPAP involvement can incorporate the results of this study to design tailored professional trainings that target appropriate levels of social-ecological influence. Further, even though previous experiences with PE cannot be changed, helping principals understand the value of quality PE programs to whole-child learning and development may be worth exploring as a strategy to bolster CSPAP implementation efforts.