Elementary school children's physical activity during supervised intramurals as a function of a parkour unit in PE

Background and purpose: The development of a physically active lifestyle is a core goal of Physical education (PE). Therefore, it is important to increase children’s’ independence from teachers. We investigated whether... [ view full abstract ]

Background and purpose: The development of a physically active lifestyle is a core goal of Physical education (PE). Therefore, it is important to increase children’s’ independence from teachers. We investigated whether elementary school children’s physical activity behavior during supervised intramurals was different before, during and after a parkour unit in PE. Methods: Four PE teachers from four different elementary schools each taught a 12 lesson parkour unit to one class. They also offered children the opportunity to engage in five parkour intramurals during lunch recess. During the intramurals, PE teachers only supervised for reasons of safety. One intramural was provided before, three during and one after children received the parkour unit. For the three intramurals organized during the parkour unit, contextual similarities were created by building the same landscape as in PE. Four children per class were selected for observation. In total 37 children (20 girls, 17 boys) were observed 1 to 5 times depending on their choice to participate. The time engaged in parkour was the variable of interest. Results: Only children who were observed for three or more times were retained for analysis. Boys (n=5) as well as girls (n=8) on average spent a higher amount of time in parkour activity after the parkour unit compared to before (38% vs 20% and 39% vs 25%). During the parkour unit, average parkour activity time gradually increased over intramurals for boys (17% vs 34% vs 34%). Girls did not increase gradually due to higher proportions of parkour activity time in the first intramural (45% vs 28% vs 37%) Conclusions: This research indicates that children’s PA behavior during supervised intramurals is affected by the activities learned in PE. Linking intramurals with PE seems a promising tool to positively influence children’s PA.