| The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between 5 th grade students' health-related physical fitness knowledge and their BMIs. A secondary purpose of this study was to analyze the level of health-related physical fitness knowledge of 5th grade students at schools with licensed physical education teachers compared to 5th grade students at schools with non-licensed physical education teachers. Participants in the study were 148 5th grade students enrolled in local public schools in the state of Arkansas. Of the 148 students, 97 were taught by licensed PE teachers, while the other 51 were taught by non-licensed PE teachers. BMIs were only collected for those 5th grade students taught by licensed PE teachers. The students' knowledge was assessed using a health-related physical fitness knowledge survey. Surveys were coded, and the students' BMIs were reported anonymously by the PE teachers. A correlation revealed no relationship between health-related physical fitness knowledge and BMI, r = .016. A factorial ANOVA revealed a significant difference in health-related physical fitness knowledge for license group, F (1, 146) = 10.17, p = .002, with 5th graders taught by licensed physical education teachers (M = 10.78, SD = 2.78) scoring significantly higher on the health-related physical fitness survey than 5th graders taught by non-licensed physical education teachers (M = 9.25, SD = 2.73) (p < .05). A bivariate correlation revealed that none of the predictor variables were significantly related to health knowledge, although a few weak correlations did exist. Results were also analyzed using two between-groups MANOVAs. The analyses revealed a significant multivariate effect for license group, Wilks' Lambda = .94, F (2, 143) = 4.25, p = .02, and univariate results showed that for fast food, students taught by licensed physical education teachers consumed significantly less fast food per week than students taught by non-licensed physical education teachers, F (l, 144) = 9.14, p = .003. |
