title: Investigating elementary school children's daily physical activity and sedentary behaviours during weekdays.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to quantify the contributions of physical education, exergaming (active video games that also are a type of exercise), recess, lunch break and after-school time segments to children's daily physical activity and sedentary behaviours. Participants were 138 second and third graders (71 girls) who attended 20-min recess and 75-min lunch time daily, 25-min regular physical education or exergaming-based classes being alternated daily. The after-school period was defined as 3:20-10:00pm. Physical activity was assessed via accelerometry and the dependent variables were children's time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Children's percentages of time spent in MVPA (P < .001; except for the difference between exergaming and lunch break: P = .63), light physical activity (P < .001) and sedentary behaviour (P < .001) differed significantly across the time segments (i.e., physical education/exergaming, recess, lunch break and after-school). Additionally, children accumulated significantly more MVPA (t = 10.22, P < .001) but less light physical activity (t = -3.17, P = .002) and sedentary behaviour (t = -3.91, P < .001) in physical education than in exergaming. Overall, physical education was more effective in generating MVPA than other segments over the school day. The after-school segment holds potential as an avenue for promoting children's MVPA, as this long period could be better utilised to organise structured physical activity.
authors.affiliation: a School of Kinesiology , The University of Minnesota , Minneapolis , MN , USA.
authors.forename: Zan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: b Department of Kinesiology , Iowa State University , Ames , IA , USA.
authors.forename: Senlin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: c College of Education , Wayland Baptist University , Plainview , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Charles C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: d Department of Physical Education and Athletic Training , The University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Stodden
authors.affiliation: e Department of Health and Kinesiology , Texas A&M University , College Station , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xiang
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D012574:Schools; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D018910:Video Games
keywords: Childhood obesity; light physical activity; moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; school-based physical activity programmes