The Effect Of A Physical Activity Intervention On Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Variability And The Role Of Adhd Symptoms

There is a need to investigate adjunct interventions for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that are effective and accessible for children and families while they await evidence-based treatments. One such intervention that has shown promise in promoting self-regulation skills and decreasing ADHD symptoms is physical activity (PA). However, the effects of PA interventions on ADHD symptoms are less widely studied in the preschool age, a critical period for the emergence of ADHD symptoms. Therefore, more research is needed to examine the mechanisms through which PA interventions may affect behavior change in preschoolers. The current study examined the effects of a structured PA intervention, Kiddie Children and Teachers on the Move (Kiddie CATs), on intra-individual variability in PA (PA-var) throughout the school day to investigate whether PA-var varies across days preschoolers are exposed to a PA intervention versus days they are not, and whether change in PA-var across PA intervention condition (i.e., days in which the preschoolers received Kiddie CATs versus days they did not) varies as a function of preschoolers’ ADHD symptom levels. Two hundred and fifteen preschoolers (Mage = 4.02, SD = 0.60, 52.1% male) recruited from 14 classrooms participating in the Kiddie CATs program across five non-consecutive academic years were included. Baseline assessments of teacher-reported ADHD behaviors and accelerometry during the two-week fall intervention assessment period were used. Multi-level modeling was used to examine the effects of PA intervention condition on PA-var and the interactive effect of ADHD symptoms on PA-var, controlling for accelerometer wear time. Hyperactive/impulsive (HI) and inattentive (IA) symptoms were examined separately. Results demonstrated that there was no significant difference in PA-var across the PA intervention conditions. However, there was a significant interaction effect between PA intervention condition and HI symptoms on PA-var in that children with higher levels of HI symptoms demonstrated lower levels of PA-var on days they participated in Kiddie CATs than on days they did not. There was no significant effect of PA intervention condition on PA-var at low levels of HI symptoms. Although there were no observed overall differences in PA-var across PA intervention conditions in the current study, future research should continue to examine the relation between PA interventions and PA-var while also examining the longer-term effects Kiddie CATs may have on PA-var across a school year.