Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in the Classroom and on Attitudes toward Physical Activity: A Randomized Controlled Trial among Primary Students from Eight Countries.

Classroom-based physical activity (PA) interventions have received considerable attention due to improvements seen in academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and attitude toward PA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing children's attitudes toward PA. Students (N = 3036) aged 8-11 years from schools in Croatia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Turkey were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. The experimental group received Brain Breaks® videos during classroom sessions throughout the four months of intervention. Student attitudes toward PA were measured using the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale (APAS) before and after the intervention. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated a time interaction effect for all APAS variables except fitness. Time-by-group interaction effects with different effect sizes were found for most APAS variables, with the greatest gain effect noted in the experimental group for self-efficacy, followed by learning from the videos concerning PA benefits, exercise importance, and enjoyment from engaging in PA. This study provides evidence supporting Brain Breaks® in terms of learning experience, attitudes towards PA, and personal motivation. Using exercise videos is recommended as an interactive, technology-based PA solution that can be easily integrated into the school setting.

Psychometric Properties of the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale: A Rasch Analysis Based on Data From Five Locations.

This article describes the development and validation of the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale (APAS) to measure the attitudes, beliefs, and self-efficacy toward physical activity by children at the primary school level. The framework included: physical fitness, self-efficacy, personal best goal orientation in physical activity, interest in physical activity, importance of physical activity, benefits of physical activity, contributions of video exercise to learning in school subjects, contributions of video exercise to learning about health and environmental support. The sample comprised of 630 school students between grades 1 and 7 from five countries, namely Lithuania (29%), Poland (26%), Serbia (19%), Singapore (16%) and Zimbabwe (11%). Rasch analysis found empirical evidence in support of measurement validity of the APAS in terms of Rasch item reliabilities, unidimensionality, effectiveness of response categories, and absence of gender differential item functioning (DIF). The validation of the APAS according to the Rasch model meant that a dependable tool was established for gauging programme effectiveness of intervention programs on physical activity of primary school children in classroom settings at various geographical locations globally.