| The purpose of this study was to explore strategies that may increase children's motivation to engage in physical activity during unstructured in-school free-time, such as recess. One hundred and sixty-two students, recruited from three elementary schools and nine fourth grade classrooms, were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) a teacher's daily verbal persuasion to engage in physical activity during recess; (2) a modeling of active recess time games by a competent adult; and (3) a comparison group that received no treatment. Pre-and post-treatment self-efficacy and effort data were collected utilizing a recess time physical activity self-efficacy instrument and accelerometers.;A Spearman's rank correlation analysis determined that, in the context of recess, self-efficacy and effort are not related. A series of 2 x 3 ANCOVAs with pre-treatment scores as covariates determined that following treatment, the verbal persuasion group participants, compared to the modeling group participants, had significantly greater self-efficacy and effort mean scores. A borderline significant gender by treatment interaction effect on effort indicated that verbal persuasion was slightly more effective at increasing males, compared to female's effort. A series of 3 x 2 repeated measures ANOVAs determined that from pre- to post-treatment only participants in the verbal persuasion group spent a significantly higher percent of their recess time engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Lastly, a principal component analysis with varimax rotation indicated that the barrier self-efficacy scale utilized in this study consisted of two types of barrier self-efficacy: adult verbal persuasion barrier self-efficacy and other barrier self-efficacy.;Given school districts current budget and curriculum constrains, this study provides strong evidence that one cost effective strategy for increasing children's daily physical activity levels is a small dose of social prompting in the form of a teacher's verbal persuasion. In light of evidence suggesting that physical activity is linked to lower obesity rates, and substantial health and academic benefits, social prompting may be a useful strategy for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic, and improving students' academic and health outcomes. |
