Unless rules specify that schoolchildren get more of both physical education and recess, schools are likely to trim time from one to boost the other, therefore leaving kids’ total level of physical activity ultimately unchanged and inadequate, researchers say.
According to a study published online Dec. 5 in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, both state laws and school district policies mandating or recommending increased physical activity during the school day are effective at increasing PE class time and recess time among elementary students.
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Without state laws or school policies enforcing both recess and physical education, kids are unlikely to receive an adequate amount of physical activity.
But schools tend to "compensate for any increased physical activity in one area by decreasing other physical activity opportunities," an important finding for policy makers to understand, wrote Sandy J. Slater, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and her associates.
Dr. Slater and her colleagues examined this issue in what they described as the first study to assess nationally the impact of state- and district-level policies on public grade-school PE and recess time practices.
They cited previous research indicating that fewer than 20% of third-grade students at public schools in the United States are offered both 150 min/week of PE as well as one or more 20-minute session of recess per day that are recommended by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.
Dr. Slater’s team collected data on physical activity in schools by surveying principals at a nationally representative sample of 1,761 schools about daily schedules for third-graders, as well as by asking them to identify barriers to compliance with the recommendations regarding physical activity. The researchers separately assessed state and school district laws and policies regarding physical activity.
Only 18% of the respondents offered 150 min/week of PE, and only 70% of schools offered at least 20 minutes of daily recess.
Most states (83%) had no laws regarding recess, and fewer than half had "some kind of law" concerning PE.
Schools were significantly more likely to offer the recommended PE and recess times if they were located in states that had such laws (odds ratio, 2.8). But even in the absence of state laws, schools located in districts that had policies encouraging regularly scheduled PE and recess times were significantly more likely to meet the recommendations (OR, 2.4).
However, schools everywhere tended to "borrow from Peter to pay Paul" if their laws and recommendations addressed only PE or only recess, rather than both activities. Schools in which PE was emphasized made time for PE classes by subtracting from recess time, and those in which recess was emphasized made time for recess by subtracting from PE class time, rather than providing the recommended time for both. Schools meeting the recess recommendations were less likely to meet the PE criterion (OR, 0.5); those meeting the PE recommendation were 50% less likely to meet the recess criterion, the investigators found.
Thus, to increase physical activity in schools, "policy makers may need to mandate more of both PE and recess time," the investigators said (Arch. Pediatr. Adoles. Med. 2011 Dec. 5 [doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1133]).
In accordance with this finding, most principals reported that "competing time demands" were the largest barrier to complying with recommendations. And having a longer than usual school day closely correlated with meeting the NASPE standards for both PE and recess.
Schools with predominantly white students were more likely than those with other racial groups to offer daily recess. In addition, schools with the highest number of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunches – a proxy for having greater numbers of students from low-income homes – were the least likely to provide daily recess and provided the fewest weekly minutes of PE.
"Latino and African American children have higher rates of being overweight or obese than their white counterparts, and the prevalence of obesity is significantly higher among low- vs. high-income groups," Dr. Slater and her associates wrote.
"Therefore, it is important to develop strategies to increase the number of minutes of recess offered specifically for these vulnerable populations most at risk to acquire the many health complications associated with obesity."
The investigators noted that their self-reported study’s "cross-sectional design limits causal interpretation" and that they had no information on children’s actual activity during recess and PE. Furthermore, the study was limited to public schools, which are not governed by all state laws.
This study was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. No financial conflicts of interest were reported by the investigators.