Test of an Intervention to Increase Physical Activity Among School Children

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Obesity

In brief

The specific aims of this study are to: 1) evaluate the impact of a novel intervention delivered via school-based physical education (PE) on adolescents who have a high sensitivity to exercise-induced negative affect; 2) determine whether adolescents' tendency to feel uncomfortable during exercise is a stable trait that persists even in the face of an intervention; and 3) compare and contrast three alternative methods of measuring adolescents' sensitivity to exercise-induced affect. Healthy middle-school students who do not participate in team or individual competitive sports will be recruited and assessed to determine their existing predisposition toward exercise (i.e., "reluctant exercisers" and "latent exercisers"). The assessment will be conducted using three methods that have been used to measure individuals' propensity to experience positive affect in the face of a stimulus: 1) a pencil-and-paper assessment that measures tendency to respond to a challenge with positive affect; 2) electroencephalogram (EEG) to ascertain frontal cortical asymmetry; and 3) empirically assessed affective response to a standardized exercise task. Reluctant and latent exercisers will be assigned in equal numbers to one of two conditions. One condition will implement a PE-based intervention that differs from the traditional approach in that students will be instructed to exercise at an intensity that has been determined to elicit positive affect in that individual (based on baseline testing). In the other condition, students will be instructed to exercise at an intensity derived from standard formulas typically used in exercise prescriptions. It is hypothesized that the non-traditional approach will increase reluctant exercisers' enjoyment of PE and also their level of participation in physical activity outside of PE. The latter will be determined using portable monitors (accelerometers) worn at baseline, after the intervention, and again 1 year after the end of the intervention.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT01876602
Run by
University of California, Irvine
People needed
140
Starts
2011-04-01
Expected to finish
2017-03-01
Last updated by the study team
2018-05-15

Who can join

Age: 10 and older, up to 12. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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