Twenty Years of Intervention Research in School Physical Education in the JTPE and RQES.

Background/Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to review intervention studies in school physical education, with a goal of identifying the gaps and future trends of intervention research in the field of physical education. Methods: A total of 71 quantitative experimental studies were identified by manually examining all the articles published in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport from January 1998 to December 2018. All the studies were coded using a coding template. The interrater reliability among three coders exceeded 85%. The frequencies and percentages for each category were calculated as appropriate. Results: Eighty-five percent of experimental studies were guided by a theoretical framework. Interventions used various types of research designs. A variety of dependent variables were measured with the majority of studies focusing on student motivation and psychomotor skills. The intervention length ranged from 5 min to 2 years. Fifty-six percent of studies reported effect sizes. The reported types and strength of effect size varied. Forty-nine percent of them reported an intervention fidelity check. Conclusion: A limited number of experimental studies had been conducted from 1998 to 2018. The rigor of these experimental studies needs significant improvement. More experimental studies with a randomized controlled trial design are needed.

Clustering effects of health risk behavior on mental health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents.

PURPOSE: Risk behaviors are significantly impacting physical and psychological health among adolescents, resulting in a tremendous public health issue. The aim of this study is to examine the association of clustered risk behaviors with mental health and physical activity, and identify to what extent the clustering of various risk behaviors is associated with psychological health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents. METHODS: Students aged 16-18 years, male 16.2 ± 1.03, female 16.3 ± 1.56, were recruited from 30 high schools to complete an online questionnaire in fall semester 2017. A structured questionnaire, 2017 state and local youth risk behavior survey was revised, modified, and translated into Chinese. Five questions were designed to assess physical activity times of the last 7 days. Symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) was used to investigate the mental health status of the participants. Statistical analyses were done employing chi-square tests, two step cluster analysis, logistic regression. RESULT: Results illustrate that girls report a significantly higher mean of being bullied in school, electronically bullied, feeling sad or hopeless, and trying cigarette smoking. Two-step cluster analysis and regression analysis find that alcohol use, smoking and sedentary behavior have significant effect on adolescent health. Logic regression demonstrated that risk behaviors have significantly associated with mental health and physical activity in specific cluster. CONCLUSION: This study finds that a specific behavior cluster has significant impact on mental health and physical activity among adolescents. Integrating risk behaviors cluster with factors can be employed to target high-risk adolescents who have poor physical and psychosocial health. The research suggest that more effective and feasible school intervention programs can be designed to promote adolescent health-related behavior in terms of those pathways.

Effects of a Health Education Course on Pre-Service Teachers' Perceived Knowledge, Skills, Preparedness, and Beliefs in Teaching Health Education.

BACKGROUND: In this study, we explore how a health education course may play a role in pre-service teachers' perceptions in teaching and integrating health education activities to nurture K-8 students' health literacy. METHODS: We used mixed methods to examine the effect of a health education course in a teacher education program. Of 55 pre-service teachers, 41voluntarily participated in the study. Quantitative data were obtained through an online questionnaire administered to participants at the beginning and end of the course. We conducted 6 focus groups at the end of the course. RESULTS: The inferential analysis from a series of analysis of variance with repeated measures revealed significant differences in health knowledge (F = 113.39, p < .01, η2  = 0.74), preparedness (F = 104.74, p < .01, η2  = 0.73), attitudes (F = 15.02, p < .01, η2  = 0.28), and beliefs (F = 8.87, p < .01, η2  = 0.19) between time points. Qualitative data led to the conclusion that where one health education course is insufficient, such a course is the first step into future curriculum development and implementation. CONCLUSION: One health education course might be beneficial for general education teachers to increase their knowledge and preparation to teaching school health. On-going training is needed for program success.