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Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior

Background: Physical activity professional development programs for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators are a viable strategy for improving preschool children’s physical activity behavior. This pilot intervention evaluated the effectiveness of ‘nature play’ and ‘fundamental movement...

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Autores principales: Bai, Pulan, Thornton, Ashleigh, Lester, Leanne, Schipperijn, Jasper, Trapp, Gina, Boruff, Bryan, Ng, Michelle, Wenden, Elizabeth, Christian, Hayley
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31892276
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010223
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author Bai, Pulan
Thornton, Ashleigh
Lester, Leanne
Schipperijn, Jasper
Trapp, Gina
Boruff, Bryan
Ng, Michelle
Wenden, Elizabeth
Christian, Hayley
author_facet Bai, Pulan
Thornton, Ashleigh
Lester, Leanne
Schipperijn, Jasper
Trapp, Gina
Boruff, Bryan
Ng, Michelle
Wenden, Elizabeth
Christian, Hayley
author_sort Bai, Pulan
collection PubMed
description Background: Physical activity professional development programs for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators are a viable strategy for improving preschool children’s physical activity behavior. This pilot intervention evaluated the effectiveness of ‘nature play’ and ‘fundamental movement skills’ (FMS) professional development programs on ECEC educators’ practices on physical activity. Methods: 148 ECEC educators from 20 ECEC centers took part in either the Nature play or FMS professional development programs in Perth, Western Australia. Educators self-reported their physical activity related practices at baseline and three months post-professional development training, using established items. Wilcoxon’s test and adjusted models using Mann–Whitney U tests were run at the individual educator level to examine the change between baseline and post-professional development educator physical activity behavior. Results: Educators’ self-efficacy to engage children to be active significantly increased in both the Nature play and FMS professional development programs (p < 0.05). In the Nature play professional development program, ECEC educators’ perceived time set aside for children to participate in nature-based play increased by 9.2%, and their perceived behavioral control for supporting general and nature-based play activities for preschool children increased by 5% and 10.3%, respectively (p < 0.05). However, these results were no longer significant after adjusting for educator socio-demographics. Conclusion: Both the Nature play and FMS professional development programs were effective in improving educators’ self-efficacy to engage children to be active in Nature play or FMS activities. Larger pragmatic trials are required to confirm the impact of these professional development programs on educator perceived physical activity behavior.
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spelling pubmed-69816682020-02-03 Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior Bai, Pulan Thornton, Ashleigh Lester, Leanne Schipperijn, Jasper Trapp, Gina Boruff, Bryan Ng, Michelle Wenden, Elizabeth Christian, Hayley Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Physical activity professional development programs for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators are a viable strategy for improving preschool children’s physical activity behavior. This pilot intervention evaluated the effectiveness of ‘nature play’ and ‘fundamental movement skills’ (FMS) professional development programs on ECEC educators’ practices on physical activity. Methods: 148 ECEC educators from 20 ECEC centers took part in either the Nature play or FMS professional development programs in Perth, Western Australia. Educators self-reported their physical activity related practices at baseline and three months post-professional development training, using established items. Wilcoxon’s test and adjusted models using Mann–Whitney U tests were run at the individual educator level to examine the change between baseline and post-professional development educator physical activity behavior. Results: Educators’ self-efficacy to engage children to be active significantly increased in both the Nature play and FMS professional development programs (p < 0.05). In the Nature play professional development program, ECEC educators’ perceived time set aside for children to participate in nature-based play increased by 9.2%, and their perceived behavioral control for supporting general and nature-based play activities for preschool children increased by 5% and 10.3%, respectively (p < 0.05). However, these results were no longer significant after adjusting for educator socio-demographics. Conclusion: Both the Nature play and FMS professional development programs were effective in improving educators’ self-efficacy to engage children to be active in Nature play or FMS activities. Larger pragmatic trials are required to confirm the impact of these professional development programs on educator perceived physical activity behavior. MDPI 2019-12-27 2020-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6981668/ /pubmed/31892276 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010223 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bai, Pulan
Thornton, Ashleigh
Lester, Leanne
Schipperijn, Jasper
Trapp, Gina
Boruff, Bryan
Ng, Michelle
Wenden, Elizabeth
Christian, Hayley
Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title_full Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title_fullStr Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title_full_unstemmed Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title_short Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior
title_sort nature play and fundamental movement skills training programs improve childcare educator supportive physical activity behavior
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31892276
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010223
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