TITLE:
Directly Measured and Self-Reported Physical Activity in a Sample of Finnish Secondary School Students
AUTHORS:
Arto Grasten, Anthony Watt, Timo Jaakkola, Jarmo Liukkonen
KEYWORDS:
Physical Activity; Accelerometers; Self-Reports; Secondary School
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.2 No.3,
August
27,
2012
ABSTRACT: Background: Previous studies based on self-reports show that a majority of children and adolescents in Western countries fail to achieve the recommendation of 60 minutes moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) on a daily basis. The specific aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between directly measured and self-reported PA in a cross-sectional sample of Finnish secondary school students. Moreover, how large proportion of adolescents accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA on a daily basis using self-reports and direct measure scores. Methods: Participants were recruited from a secondary school located in Northeast Finland. The sample comprised 96 students (58 girls, 38 boys) aged between 12- to 16-years (M = 15.03, SD = .94). Students’ directly measured PA was collected using accelerometers over a seven-day period. The self-reported PA data was gathered during the school’s allotted 90-minute lessons. Results: Results indicated that girls and boys were similarly physically active, based PA measured using both accelerometers and questionnaires. Grade 7 students were physically more active than Grade 9 students when PA was assessed using self-reports but no significant difference was found when direct measure scores were used. Self-reported PA emerged as the significant positive predictor for students’ directly measured PA within Grade 8 (p