Health.edu – Sport-related health competence of pupils

IntroductionOne aim in Physical Education (PE) is to develop pupils’ sport-related health competence (SRHC), which means they can take over responsibility for their own health and are able to practice sports autonomously in... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

One aim in Physical Education (PE) is to develop pupils’ sport-related health competence (SRHC), which means they can take over responsibility for their own health and are able to practice sports autonomously in a health enhancing manner. On this basis, the purpose of the Health.edu study (BMBF grant 01EL1421D) is to improve pupils’ SRHC by a participatory approach that consists of a cooperative planning process. The study is evaluated regarding program implementation and effectiveness.

Methods

A one year cooperative planning process was carried out at four intervention schools (IG). About five meetings were hold at each school, where different stakeholders (PE teachers, pupils, principals, scientists) conceptualized and evaluated PE lessons regarding the promotion of SRHC. Four other schools carried out their normal PE lessons (control group (CG)). SRHC was measured in a pre-post-test-design by a standardized test designed to assess SRHC. The evaluation of program implementation leads to the exclusion of one intervention school, where the intervention did not work well due to missing teachers’ health awareness and commitment. The total pre-post-sample includes 187 pupils (11-17 years, M=14.42, SD=1.28; 50.3% IG, 54% female). Data is analyzed by a one-way repeated-measure ANOVA.

Results

Results show a significant improvement of SRHC for the total sample between the school year (F_{1, 179}=10.29; p=.002; ɳ²=.054), significantly higher for pupils in IG compared to those in CG (F_1, 179=3.93; p=.049; ɳ²=.021). Girls’ and boys’ development is similar, although girls constantly show a significantly higher SRHC (F_1, 179=8.64; p=.004; ɳ²=.046).

Discussion

The intervention is successful in improving pupils’ SRHC at three schools by a cooperative planning process. The second project phase aims at generating good-practice-examples including a gender-specific approach.