[Increasing one school's physical activity levels through a self-regulated, multifactorial intervention during...

Research has uncovered a global pandemic of physical inactivity and schools have been signaled as possible "agents" to modify these negative scores, since all children spend many hours a day there. The aim was to evaluate if it is possible to increase the physical activity levels of a whole school using a multifactorial, self-regulated intervention program during recess.

A cross-sectional study was conducted involving all the students (N=50) of a rural public school located in northern Spain (grades 1-6). The study followed an ABA case study research design (changes in the experimentation conditions and data collection after each one: week 1 no intervention, weeks 2-3 intervention, week 4 no intervention) and mixed quantitative-qualitative methodology which included the use of accelerometers (each participant wore one during the whole school day and the school week), field notes (researcher) and focus groups (teachers). Normality tests, descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVAs) were conducted in the quantitative data obtained, while thematic content and constant comparison analyses in the qualitative data.

Quantitative results showed that there was a significant increase to 67.15 ± 13.95 minutes/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in week 2. Boys reached significantly higher scores than girls: 72.1 ± 12.12. Unfortunately, these scores went back to almost normal in the second week of implementation of the program (58.21 ± 12.88; boys= 62.75 ± 10.86). From the joined analysis of the researcher field notes and the teachers' focus groups 4 themes emerged: intensity change, dominance change, interactions change and self-regulation.

It is possible to increase the physical activity levels of a whole school with a multifactorial, self-regulated program, but it is necessary to acknowledge that novelty "wears out" to avoid losing efficacy with time.