D.N. Pukhov¹
A.V. Malinin¹
Dr.Hab., Professor B.N. Shustin^2
1St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg
²Federal Scientific Center for Physical Culture and Sports, Moscow

Keywords: schoolchildren, physical education and sports, commitment, motivations and preferences, physical activity.

Background. Schoolchildren’s physical activity motivations and preferences (need to be analyzed and taken into consideration by the school physical education service and other physical activity encouragement initiatives [3, 5]. Knowing that, the physical education and sport service and research community gives a special priority to the schoolchildren physical activity motivations and preferences studies and analyses for the school physical education and sport service customization and healthy systemic physical activation initiatives [1, 4].

Objective of the study was to rate the schoolchildren’s physical activity motivations and preferences for the physical education and sports commitment encouragement purposes.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was based on a mass anonymous questionnaire survey of the 11, 13 and 15 years old school population under the international 2017-18 Health Behaviors in Schoolchildren (HBSC) Project research initiative – under supervision of the St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture (SPSRIPC) as the Health Behavior in Schoolchildren Project leader for the Russian Federation [4]. The SPSRIPC Health Behavior in Schoolchildren Project team developed a special data processing and analytical software toolkit for the Health Behavior in Schoolchildren survey data with a Russian version of the international questionnaire survey form and a cloud database for the Project [4].

The schoolchildren commitment to physical education and sport and physical activity was rated on the MVPA (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) test scale, with the minimal healthy physical activity threshold for the age group set at one hour per day – as the bottom physical health-securing physical activity level [2]. The schoolchildren physical activity motivations were tested on a 3-point scale by a question on their leisure-time physical activity importance with "very important", "quite important" and "unimportant" options plus further optional reasons (see Table 1).

Table 1. Reported schoolchildren’s motivations for the leisure-time physical activity

Results and discussion. For further analysis of the schoolchildren’s physical education and sport / physical activity motivations, we formed two 11-year-old groups of both sexes based on their weekly physical activity / physical education and sport rates above the physical activity threshold of 1 hour per day – namely MVPA3 and MVPA7 groups with the reported 3-day (moderate) and 7-day (highly) weekly physical activity, respectively: see Table 2.

Table 2. 11-year-old sample grouping for the survey

Given hereunder are the reasons for the high (and ‘very important’) leisure-time physical activity ranked by importance in descending order.

Figure 1. MVPA3 boys’ physical activity motivations and priorities

1. Improve health 2. Keep good fitness 3. Look nice 4. It’s exciting 5. Succeed in sports 6. Make friends 7. Control my weight 8. Be a winner 9. Feel of my body under control 10. Meet my friends 11. Have fun 12. Be cool 13. Please my family

The MVPA3 boys reported the following key physical activity motivations and preferences: improve health (58.4%), keep good fitness (49.2%) and look nice (42.6%). Note that the social needs, self-assertion and communication related motivations and preferences were rated meaningfully lower by this subgroup.

Figure 2. MVPA7 boys’ physical activity motivations and priorities

1. Improve health 2. Keep good fitness 3. Succeed in sports 4. Look nice 5. It’s exciting 6. Feel of my body under control 7. Control my weight 8.Be a winner 9. Meet my friends 10. Make friends 11. Have fun 12. Please my family 13. Be cool

The MVPA7 boys reported the following key physical activity motivations and preferences: improve health (82.5 %), keep good fitness (80.4 %) and succeed in sports (70.9%).

Figure 3. MVPA3 girls’ physical activity motivations and priorities

1. Improve health 2. Keep good fitness 3. Look nice 4. It’s exciting 5. Control my weight 6. Feel of my body under control 7. Succeed in sports 8. Be a winner 9. Meet my friends 10. Make friends 11. Please my family 12. Have fun 13. Be cool

The MVPA3 girls reported the following key physical activity motivations and preferences: improve health (56.6 %), keep good fitness (50%) and look nice (47.1%).

Figure 4. MVPA7 girls’ physical activity motivations and priorities

1. Improve health 2. Keep good fitness 3. Look nice 4. Succeed in sports 5 Control my weight 6. It’s exciting 7. Feel of my body under control 8. Be a winner 9. Make friends 10. Meet my friends 11. Please my family 12. Have fun 13. Be cool

The MVPA7 girls reported the following key physical activity motivations and preferences: improve health (84.3%), keep good fitness (84%) and look nice (72%). Note that the percentages of these motivations were reported notably higher by the MVPA7 girls versus their peers.

Conclusion. The survey data and analyses demonstrated that the schoolchildren with the moderate physical education and sport commitment (MVPA3) make an emphasis on the optimal physical health keeping motivations and preferences. It should be noted that only 25.8% and 25% of the boys and girls in MVPA3 group (respectively) self-rated own health "excellent"; versus 64.7% and 44.7% in MVPA7 group. The intergroup difference on this scale was found significant (p<0.01 for the boys and p<0.05 for the girls). The highly-physical-education-and-sport -committed group (MVPA7) was also tested notably higher on the social self-assertion motivations rating scale.

References

1. Gavrilov D.N., Antipova E.V., Malinin A.V. et al. FizichEffects of physical activity on school health standards. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. No. 11. pp. 44-46.
2. Global recommendations on physical activity for health WHO [Electronic resource] Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44399/3/9789244599976_rus.pdf (Date of access: 12.01.2020).
3. Komkov A.G. Health resource indicators and behavior style of Russian schoolchildren. Proceedings international symposium "Health and behavior of schoolchildren. St. Petersburg: SPbNIIFK publ., 2004. pp. 52-66.
4. Matochkina A.I., Malinin A.V., Pukhov D.N. Results and prospects of conducting research on international scientific program “Health Behavior of School-aged Children”. Adaptivnaya fizicheskaya kultura. 2018. No. 3 (75). pp. 20-22.
5. Pukhov D.N. Experience of using technology of forming positive attitude to physical education of schoolchildren. Nauka-2020. 2016. No. 3 (9). pp. 139-144.

Corresponding author: dpuhov@spbniifk.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to rate the schoolchildren’s physical activity motivations and preferences for the physical education and sports commitment encouragement purposes.
Methods and structure of the study. The study was based on a mass anonymous questionnaire survey of the 11, 13 and 15 years old school population under the international 2017-18 Health Behavior in Schoolchildren (HBSC) Project research initiative – under supervision of the St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture (SPSRIPC) as the Health Behavior in Schoolchildren Project leader for the Russian Federation [4]. The SPSRIPC Health Behavior in Schoolchildren Project team developed a special data processing and analytical software toolkit for the Health Behavior in Schoolchildren survey data with a Russian version of the international questionnaire survey form and a cloud database for the Project.

For further analysis of the schoolchildren’s physical education and sport / physical activity motivations, the authors formed two 11-year-old groups of both sexes based on their weekly physical activity / physical education and sport rates above the physical activity threshold of 1 hour per day – namely MVPA3 and MVPA7 groups with the reported 3-day (moderate) and 7-day (highly) weekly physical activity, respectively.

Results of the study and conclusions. The survey data and analyses demonstrated that the schoolchildren with the moderate physical education and sport commitment (MVPA3) make an emphasis on the optimal physical health keeping motivations and preferences. It should be noted that only 25.8% and 25% of the boys and girls in MVPA3 group (respectively) self-rated own health "excellent"; versus 64.7% and 44.7% in MVPA7 group. The intergroup difference on this scale was found significant (p<0.01 for the boys and p<0.05 for the girls). The highly-physical-education-and-sport -committed group (MVPA7) was also tested notably higher on the social self-assertion motivations rating scale.