Teaching outdoor and adventure activities: an investigation of a primary school physical education professional development p

Correlates of Physical Activity 
School Day Affect: 
The school day affect measure rated how children felt when they 
woke up and thought about school. Seventy percent of children reported being in either 
a 
‘very good’
or 
‘good’
mood at the thought of school, with girls (77.3%) significantly 
more likely than boys (62.9%) to indicate a positive mood when thinking about school 
(χ
2
=(df = 3) 17.66, p, 0.05, r= 0.2). 
Favourite Subject: 
Forty six percent of children ranked PE as their favourite subject 
while 78% of children had PE in their top 3 favourite subjects. PE’s nearest rival was 
Art with 27% of children scoring it as their favourite. There was a marked gender 
difference between boys and girls with 58% of boys reporting that PE was their 
favourite subject compared to 29.8% of girls (χ
2
= (df = 11) 90.97, p< 0.001, r= 0.39). 
Enjoyment of Activities: 
Children were asked what they thought of 6 different activities, 
3 sedentary and 3 active. Playing team games was the most popular activity with 68.9% 
of children ‘loving it’ followed by ‘getting out of breath while 
running/cycling/swimming’ (62.1%). The ‘most liked’ sedentary activity was playing 
computer games (53.4%). Gender differences were noticeable for two activities, boys 
thought more positively (95% either ‘loving it’ or ‘thinking it’s ok’) about computer 
games, than girls (69.5% either ‘loving it’ or ‘thinking it’s ok’) (χ
2
=(df = 1) 90.97, 
p>0.0001, r= 0.39). Boys (91.7%) favoured getting out of breath more than girls 
(74.9%) (χ
2
=(df = 1) 31.68, p<0.0001, r = 0.23).
Enjoyment of Physical Activities: 
Only first class and above completed this section due 
to the complex language (n=532). In order to analyse children’s enjoyment of physical 
activity, each response in the 8-item question was scored and level of enjoyment was 
determined by an aggregate score, a high score indicating a high level of enjoyment.
The majority of children (93.8%, n = 488, range 12 - 32, mean 28.59, Sd ± 2.99) 
answered positively to the questions about how they felt about physical activities, 
indicating a high level of enjoyment, with only one child not enjoying physical activity.

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Boys scored significantly higher than girls (U = 27339.0, p<0.001, r = -0.15).