The impact of a daily physical education program on students’ attitudes towards, and participation in, physical activity

The goal of this study was to examine selected aspects of daily physical education programs in order to assess their relative student behaviour and attitude outcomes. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine if students involved in a program of daily physical education (DPE) exhibited more positive attitudes towards, and participation in, physical activity when compared to their peers involved in a non-daily physical education (NPE) program. It was hypothesized that the students involved in a daily physical education program would reap the benefits of regular physical activity to a greater degree than the non-daily physical education students and therefore develop a more positive attitude towards physical activity. Furthermore, by participating in physical education every day the students would see that physical activity is a valuable component of daily living. This recognition would serve as a foundation for a more positive attitude towards physical activity. Based on research that suggests that one's attitude will help predict his or her participation in physical activity (Smoll, Schutz, & Keeney, 1976) it was also hypothesized that the student's involved in a daily physical education program would exhibit greater levels of participation in physical activity in general. A total of 295 students ( N= 143 NPE students and N=152 DPE students ) within two British Columbia school districts were used as subjects for this study. The subjects from both program groups were selected from classes taught by specialist teachers and were enrolled in schools that were similar in philosophy, facilities and socioeconomic status. The student's attitudes were assessed using the Children's Attitude Towards Physical Activity Inventory (CATPA) (Schutz, Smoll, Carre, & Mosher, 1985). This inventory is based on Kenyon's (1968) early theoretical model that suggests attitude towards physical activity is a multidimensional construct consisting of eight subdomains. The levels of participation in physical activity were assessed using the following two inventories: 1) The Leisure Time Exercise Inventory (Godin & Shephard, 1985) which has been validated and has shown strong test -retest reliability since its development. 2) The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) (McGrath & Bailey, 1991) which is a more contemporary inventory provides detailed information regarding physical activity levels and patterns. The results from the multivariate analysis of variance show an non -significant difference, F(8,286) = 1.107, p< 369, between the DPE and NPE student's attitudes towards physical activity. However, consistent with other research there was a significant multivariate F ratio, F(8,286) = 6.831, p<. 001, for the gender main effect. There were two attitude domains (vertigo and aesthetic) that were responsible for the overall gender difference. The univariate F ratios suggest that the males had a more favorable attitude towards the risk taking and thrill aspects of physical activities when compared to females. Also consistent with past research it was determined that females had more favorable attitudes towards the aesthetic nature of physical activities. There was also a non-significant Program and Gender interaction suggesting that the differences between the males and females were generally the same for each program. With respect to the levels of participation in physical activity, both inventories used were able to significantly differentiate between the Program and Gender groups. Multivariate analysis using both inventories showed significant F ratios, F(2, 292) = 11.37, p<. 001 for the Program main effect and F(2,292) = 22.654, p<. 001 for the gender main effect. The results suggest that the students involved in the daily physical education programs were more active than the students in non-daily physical education programs. Without any significant differences between the attitudes towards physical activity of each Program group and the fact that the attitude-involvement relationship was weak, r =. 16 for males and r =. 10 for females, it is difficult to explain the level of