Perceived Exertion of 10-12 Year Old Children During the PACER Test

This study was created to look at the relationship between heart rate and perceived exertion in 10-12 year old children when completing the PACER Test. While there are many studies looking at perceived exertion in children, none to date have used the PACER test as the testing protocol. There were 18 total participants in the study (10 Males and 8 Females) ranging in age from 9-12 years old, from Arbor Intermediate School in Piscataway, New Jersey. The test protocol used was the Fitnessgram Progressive Aerobic Capacity Endurance Run (PACER). The participants completed the PACER Test on two separate occasions, one month apart, while wearing a Polar E600 wrist worn heart rate monitor. During each test participants were asked to record ratings of their perceived exertion, both during and at the end of the test, using the OMNI Children's Perceived Exertion Scale. After all data was collected a correlation was ran looking at relationships between heart rate increases and perceived exertion ratings during and after each test protocol. Also, correlations between both of these ratings were done between Test 1 and Test 2, for each participant. Although correlations were found, none were high enough to be considered high. Although no significant correlation was found, the relationship between heart rate and perceived exertion needs to be further explored to better understand how children perceive their exertion during fitness testing.