The Effect of Increased Physical Activity on Adolescents' Health and Academic Performance: The School in Motion Study

Summary

This study evaluates the effect of 120 minutes extra of physical education (PE) or physical activity (PA) on adolescents' physical health, mental health, academic performance and learning environment. This is a cluster-randomized controlled trial with three arms, where the participants in two of the groups will have different models of increased PE/PA during the school week, whereas the participants in the third arm is the control group including current practice.

Conditions

• Physical Activity
• Academic Achievement
• Mental Health

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Physical education

Physical education (60 minutes): In addition to the ordinary PE-lessons. The pedagogical activities taught in this lesson should be in line with the curriculum of 9th grade and led by the PE-teacher. In the Don't worry - be happy intervention this class was also organized by the students. The students practiced their Be Happy-activities, or they introduced their class peers to their "Be Happy"-activity. A PE-teacher was present to support the students if necessary.

BEHAVIORAL

Physical active learning

The curriculum of the subjects (i.e. maths, English, Norwegian) were taught in a physically active manner. The lesson should last 30 minutes and be led by the teacher of the current subject.

BEHAVIORAL

Physical activity

Without a connection to any specific subject "Physical activity" should be performed as 30 minutes a week. There are no specific aims to be taught in this lesson, but physical activities that stimulates mastery, joy and well-being should be in focus.

BEHAVIORAL

Be happy

The Be Happy classes were self-organized activity groups of at least three students, developed according to activity preferences across regular classes. The Be Happy groups practiced traditional sports and physical activities, lifestyle sports, dancing, out-door recreation, drama etc. - inside or outside school.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Stavanger

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Agder

  collaborator OTHER

• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elin Kolle, PhD · Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-04-03

Primary Completion

2018-06-22

Completion

2018-06-22

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations