Strong Foundations of Physical Literacy: The Role of School-Based Daily Mile Physical Activity in Elementary School Children’s Success

Background: Reduced physical activity among students has made physical literacy a necessity for public health. Programs like the Daily Mile can help improve physical literacy in children. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of school-based daily physical activity in the development of physical literacy in elementary school children.Methods: This quasi-experimental study, using a pre-test-post-test design, was conducted on 208 male students aged 8 to 10 years in the city of Nurabad (Lorestan Province, Iran) during the academic year of 2023-2024. The study participants were selected using a randomized cluster sampling method. Random assignment of individuals to the experimental (N=113) and control (N=95) groups was performed using a computer-based random number generation algorithm. The Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy-2 (CAPL-2) test was used to evaluate physical literacy. The Daily Mile program was administered to the experimental group three times weekly for a duration of two months, whereas the control group pursued their typical activities. SPSS version 24 was employed to analyze the collected data, using one-way ANCOVA, independent t-tests, and paired t-tests.Results: The results showed that the Daily Mile intervention significantly improved physical literacy and its constituent components. Specifically, the experimental group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in physical literacy (Mean±SD=70.74±5.22) compared with the control group (Mean±SD=58.61±6.22). Similarly, significant improvements were observed in daily physical activity (Experimental group: Mean±SD=21.05±2.77; Control group: Mean±SD=17.97±2.71), physical competence (Experimental group: Mean±SD=18.66±2.09; Control group: Mean±SD=15.55±2.12), motivation/confidence (Experimental group: Mean±SD=25.83±1.90; Control group: Mean±SD=21.69±3.20), and knowledge/understanding (Experimental group: Mean±SD=5.20±1.25; Control group: Mean±SD=3.40±1.37).Conclusions: The findings of this study suggested that the Daily Mile intervention, when implemented in schools, can effectively improve the physical literacy of elementary school students. Therefore, integrating such activities into regular school programs is recommended. However, further nationwide research with more diverse groups is necessary to ensure the generalizability of the results.