Effect of Health-Related Fitness Knowledge on Adolescent Interest and Participation in Physical Activity

This study examined the effect of health-related knowledge on adolescents· interest and participation in physical activity. Specifically. the researcher employed a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures to examine the implementation of a health-related curriculum unit (Physical Best) on adolescent knowledge. interest, and physical activity participation, in comparison with students in comparison group who learned the traditional school district curriculum. The researcher used pre and posttests to collect adolescents· health-related fitness knowledge. personal interest. and physical activity participation. The sample size was 90 participants. with 41 adolescents in the experimental group, and 49 in the comparison group. The researcher hypothesized that. compared with the comparison group; adolescents in the experimental group would report higher posttests scores in health-related fitness knowledge. higher interest. and more physical activity participation. The researcher analyzed the data using descriptive statistical techniques and analysis of covariance to test the hypotheses. Overall. students in the experimental group reported statistically significantly higher attainment value, health-related knowledge, and number of steps after the experiment. than the comparison group. Along with the significant increase in health-related fitness knowledge. however. there was no significant increase in student interest in physical education, or after-school moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in the experimental group. These findings provided an encouraging picture of using health-related fitness curriculum unit to improve students' health-related fitness knowledge and attainment value for physical education. but somewhat inconsistent with other reports. More studies arc needed to identify the differences among the studies. and hopefully future studies \\ill be using longitudinal designs to further our understanding on this issue.