Girls\' Perceptions of Physical Education

¶ … Girls' Perceptions of Physical Education

Bruce Yockey

Credibility and Trustworthiness

Ethics

When properly balanced with other educational and life objectives, physical education can play an important role in prompting lifelong health and activity. However, some recent research has suggested that many young women in the Canadian secondary education system do not choose to enroll in physical education beyond the point required to fulfill mandatory course expectations (Friedman, 2002; Gibbons et al., 1999; Humbert, 1995). Some preliminary evidence exists which suggests that these young women have become disillusioned with physical education in early adolescence, however more research needs to be done in order to identify and correct the reasons for this mid-adolescence rejection of physical education. This research identifies reasons that Canadian high school girls are reluctant to enroll in physical education class and defines those factors that contribute to student resistance to involvement in physical education classes. Through a mixed method study including quantitative and qualitative data presented in a variety of ways, the research will address this critical concern and offer suggestions for improvement in educational curriculum and culture designed to improve participation among girls.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the PE experiences of female students in middle adolescence (grades 8 and 9, junior high school). In order to achieve that end, the study will present an approximate (systematic) replication of a study completed by Gibbons and Humbert (2008) titled "What are Middle-School Girls Looking for in Physical Education?" The present study differs from that previous one, only in the fact that the participants will be from grades 8 and 9 girls from segregated physical education classes, whereas the earlier subjects were from grades 6 and 7 girls from coeducational physical education classes. Additionally, the participants in this study come from one school, whereas the original study had subjects from five schools.

The study has the following research objectives:

1. identification of physical activity preferences and patterns of early adolescent females (both curricular and extracurricular)

2. identification of barriers toward participation in physical education

3. examination of early adolescent females' knowledge and perceptions of the contribution of physical activity to health.

The study's results have implications for physical education curricula, as well as for motivational and participation programming for adolescent females.

Definitions

The primary academic concept considered in the research is physical literacy. A physically literate person is defined as someone who has, "the motivation, confidence, physical competence, understanding and knowledge to maintain physical activity at an individually appropriate level, throughout life" (Whitehead, 2007, p.1). Defined operationally, the term signifies "the ability and motivation to capitalise on our movement potential to make a significant contribution to the quality of life" (p. 1).

Delimitations

This study is limited in scope by a relatively small sample size. The sample universe consisted of the approximately ninety girl students enrolled in segregated compulsory physical education classes at John Paul II Collegiate in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Limitations

The study's significance is ultimately limited to the degree that its use of written questionnaires, focus group interviews and one-on-one audio-recorded interviews admits the possibility of bias or inaccuracy. A number of factors could have impacted the research in this regard. First, there is no guarantee that the participants were honest and accurate when completing the questionnaires and interviews. Second, participants may have had medical conditions that affected their physical education experience. Third, not all participants had the same physical education teacher. Finally, due to space requirements at the school, certain girl classes were required to share the gym with a boy's class. And of these factors could have influenced the physical education experience of girls in those situations.

Assumptions

The researcher assumes that students have responded in an honest manner and to the best of their ability during the collection of data. The researcher assumes that despite having varied instruction from different teachers, all participants are receiving the same amount of physical education class time. A third assumption is that there will not be a strong sentiment that highlights the girls' perception that their teachers attended more closely to the needs and interests of their male counterparts. In this study the classes are segregated by gender.

Conclusion

The goal of physical education is to develop students who are physically literate. Children attain physical literacy by mastering fundamental movement and sport skills. Quality Daily Physical Education (QDPE) programs develop physically literate students in a process that begins in primary school and continues into high school. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that Canadian adolescent female students do not enroll in high school physical education classes. These low levels of physical activity among girls and young women in Canada, documented by Gibbons and Humbert, among others, provide great cause for alarm.

A national physical education and health survey titled The Health Behaviour in School -- Aged Children (HSBC) was conducted in Canada, and showed that, in the average week, fewer than 40% of early- and mid-adolescent female youth reported being physically active for 60 minutes or more each day (Boyce, 2004). Tremblay and Willms (2000) found that obesity among children and youth aged 7 -- 13 tripled from 1981-1996. These and similar statistical findings indicate that young females are not participating in physical education to an adequate degree. This must be understood and corrected, since it has been shown that young females who are not physically active are less likely to be physically active as adults (Shepard & Trudeau, 2000; Thompson, Humbert & Mirwald, 2003; Trudeau et al., 1999; Wallace, 2003). In order to ensure that the problem of reluctant participation in physical education by late-adolescent females is understood and corrected, this research will provide a variety of fieldwork analyses conducted with mid-adolescent girls, before they reach the point that their reluctance is expressed in coursework choices.

Literature Review

A review of the literature was conducted to lay the groundwork for the fieldwork and analyses. Because this research is concerned with physical education participation in the experience of mid-adolescent females in Canada, with an ultimate goal of influencing greater participation and curriculum alignment that facilitates such participation, the following areas were focused on:

1.

Physical Education's role in adolescent and lifelong health

2.

Female experience in Physical Education.

There is a significant amount of research dealing with each of these topics. In order to focus the review of the related literature, the researcher attempted to utilize those studies which addressed specifically the concerns of improving participation of female adolescents in physical education.

Physical Education and Health

Gibbons and Humbert (2008) point to the link between physical education and health when they write that "School physical education has the potential to play an important part in both stemming the decline of physical activity and promoting lifelong physical activity" (p. 1). It is in this dual role that physical education makes perhaps its largest contribution to physical health. It provides opportunities for students to exercise now, as well as inspiration and guidance, for them to participate in physical activity later in life. School-based physical education, of course, is not the only possible source of physical activity leading to improved health. However, McKenzie (1999) reviewed data from a variety of sources and found that in order to get the kind of physical activity prescribed by national standards for physical activity -- that is, in order to get the kind of activity which ensures that it ultimately leads to health improvements -- student participation in physical education classes is perhaps the only realistic avenue that many children have for achieving exercise goals.

Obesity and Activity. By providing opportunities for exercise in real time, physical education offers students the chance to improve health now. This is very important since numerous studies have been conducted to show that students, while among the most active groups in the population, often do not get enough of the right kinds of activity (McKenzie, 1999). For example, Stone, McKenzie, Welk, & Booth (1998) conducted a study of students across a variety of developed countries and found that fewer than half of students got enough exercise to cross a threshold the researchers defined as healthy. Gibbons and Humbert report further that, although young girls (for example) could articulate the need for physical education and its links to weight control and physical health, they did not think they got enough exercise in their physical education classes and elsewhere to achieve the goals they knew to be important. Physical activity seems to be on the decline as students spend their time playing video games, surfing the internet and watching TV (Tremblay and Willms, 2001), and this has important implications for adolescent health.

Tremblay and Willms (2001), conducted a study of obesity and body mass index among Canadian school-aged children. They took nationally representative data from the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey and the 1996 National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. They then performed regressional analysis to assess changes in body-mass index scores for children from age 7-13 over the 15 years. They found that the rate of prevalence for being overweight or obese was increasing, as students "benefited" from the rich diets and lifestyles made available by their culture. They analyzed the data by sex, so that obesity rates for boys and girls could be separated out. Figure 1 shows the findings of their study.

Figure 1. Increased Numbers of Overweight and Obese Children in Canada, 1981-1996

As can be seen from viewing Figure 1, the rates of obesity for boys are higher than for girls at these early ages. Tremblay and Willms suggest that "environmental" factors such as diet and leisure lifestyles are largely the culprit, and they hint that perhaps at these early ages boys have a less healthy lifestyle than girls, especially in light of the prevalence of video-game play among boys. In any event, the discrepancy seems significant, since Tjepkema (2005) finds that, by adulthood, the relationship has reversed. Figure 2 presents his findings, taken from the national Canada Community Health survey. By age 35, women have caught men in terms of the prevalence of obesity, with about 1 in 5 women suffering from obesity. With each advancing age group, women increase their rates more quickly than men.

Figure 2. Obesity Rates for Canadian Men and Women, by age

These findings suggest that something occurs between mid-adolescence and adulthood that causes women to have more sedentary lives or worse diets, or both, leading to increased obesity. The rate at which women lose ground to men gains over time, with each advancing age. Tjepkema argues that increases in obesity among women occurs even for moderately active women. While this suggests that physiological factors may be at play, based on the difference between men and women's body chemistry and lifestyle choices, the essential point is that in early life girls are less likely to be obese than boys, while in later life women are more likely to be obese than men.

In the above discussion, the basic rates of obesity themselves should not be discounted on the way to making the point about gender differences. Over the 15-year gap in the Tremblay and Willms (2001) study, the rate of overweight children went from under 15% to over 25%, while the rate of obese children went from an average of 5% to an average rate of about 12%. These rates are alarming because youth obesity has been linked to many diverse factors which negatively impact upon health, including diabetes, hypertension, and poor body image in youth, and increased morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In fact Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang (2003) calculated the additional monetary costs that overweight and obese people incur for their healthcare due to their condition. Table 1 presents these findings. Viewing the table, it become clear that the aggregated numbers for increased costs due to obesity are significant. In total, overweight and obese people spend between $52 billion and $79 billion more in healthcare, while obese people alone spend between $27 billion and $48 billion. The physical health problems caused by obesity are therefore met with significantly social and economic costs.

Table 1, Aggregate Medical Spending, in Billions of Dollars, Attributable to Overweight and Obesity, by Insurance Status and Data Source, 1996 -- 1998

Insurance Category

Overweight and Obesity

Obesity

MEPS (1998)

NHA (1998)

MEPS (1998)

NHA (1998)

Out-of-pocket

$7.1

$12.8

$3.8

$6.9

Private

$19.8

$28.1

$9.5

$16.1

Medicaid

$3.7

$14.1

$2.7

$10.7

Medicare

$20.9

$23.5

$10.8

$13.8

Total

$51.5

$78.5

$26.8

$47.5

Note: Calculations based on data from the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey merged with the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys, and health care expenditures data from National Health Accounts (NHA). MEPS estimates do not include spending for institutionalized populations, including nursing home residents.

Source: Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003

Other studies have echoed these findings, including one conducted by Troiano et al. (1995). The conclusion many of these studies reach rings true with the need for increased physical education. Troiano et al. argue that "primary prevention" is needed to improve youth health. This argument gains particular significance when it is pointed out that young people establish habits that carry over throughout life and that, therefore, improvements made at early ages in lifestyle and physical activity are more likely to endure (Thompson, Humbert, and Mirwald, 2003). Tremblay and Willms (2001) claim that what is needed is "effective health promotion planning and policy and legislation development." School-based curriculum revolving around physical education is one particular place where such prevention and programming can take place. In fact, McKenzie (1999) reviewed a variety of definitions concerning how much exercise is enough in order to control such concerns as obesity and to promote health, and found that student participation in physical education classes is the best hope many children have for achieving this goal. When this suggestion is coupled with a finding by Wechsler et al., (2000) that even the extra-curricular activities, recess breaks, and sports opportunities which provide opportunities for physical activity exist within the school setting, it becomes clear that schools and physical education curricular specialists should take responsibility for designing programs that address the health needs of children and avoid the problems associated with rising obesity.

Physical Education and a Life of Activity. The link between early childhood and youth physical activity and adult physical activity has been well-documented. Thompson, Humbert and Mirwald (2003), for example, conducted a longitudinal study to determine the long-term effects of youth participation in physical activities on later levels of physical activity. They performed in-depth one-on-one interviews with 16 men and 15 women from a longitudinal study designed to determine participation rates and motivations for children with a follow-up investigation 25 years later. Their study was designed to address the factors which impacted upon different levels of physical activity in later life. For men, they found that such concerns as competence, capacity, and relationships influenced their level of adult physical activity, while for women, the key determinants were relationships, body images, and attitudes or behaviors related to physical activity formed in childhood. This finding suggests that the potential influence of physical education on such concerns as child and adult physical activity is lasting -- but that it can have either positive or negative implications.

Trudeau et al. (1999) conducted a study with a group of 147 Canadian men and women to determine whether participation in a daily physical education class during the first years of school led to lasting health benefits. They found that women who participated in physical education classes daily in the early years of schooling were more likely to remain active in later life, while men who participated in such programs, were likely to exhibit of the positive health-related characteristics, such as not smoking. These findings suggest that physical education does have lasting impacts on levels of physical activity, and that it also impacts other attitudes related to health and lifestyle.

Sherman (2001) points out that many studies have considered the short-term benefits of physical activity such as "increased muscular strength, aerobic capacity, coordination, flexibility." However, he argues fewer studies weigh the long-term health benefits. One study that did, citied at length by Sherman, was conducted by Shepard and Trudeau (2000). It weighed the participation rates of young children and measured the impact of their participation on school-based activities, as well as later adult activities. The study was conducted with 546 students, divided into an experimental group that participated in physical education for one hour daily while in school, and a control group which had less-involved participation. The findings showed that, as with the Trudeau et al. research, women who participated in more physical activity as youth also participated in more physical activity as adults, while men who did so have healthier attitudes and practices generally. Interestingly, Shepard and Trudeau also found that those in the experimental group were more likely to recall the names of their physical education teacher and their class schedule related to physical education. This finding could constitute a correlational rather than a causal link, but the fact alone suggests that there was something about more frequent participation in physical education classes that students liked and remembered. Therefore, the psychological impact of participation can also be shown to have a lasting influence.

The effects of physical education and activity, therefore, seem to be clearly linked to health concerns such as obesity and lifelong physical activity. As a response to this link, physical educators have been asked to consider the role that their programs play in public health generally (Sallis and McKenzie, 1991). The role of such programs as extracurricular activities and sports clubs have also been linked to physical education generally, as school-based delivery of early physical culture has been shown to be critical for developing physical literacy among the population. Due to its importance, physical education must be planned and implemented correctly in order to draw in all students and maintain their committed participation throughout their school careers. Unfortunately, abundance research exists which shows that this is not the case. Specifically, the treatment and perception of girls in the physical education system has been questioned, since female participation seems to taper off in later school years (Gibbons and Humbert, 2008). In order to adress this concern, the review of the literature next turned to research which defines the female experience in physical education.

Female Experience in Physical Education

Studies documenting female perceptions of and participation in physical education are abundant. Most of these studies identify thematic concepts and attempt to determine what factors drive girls either to participate or refrain from participating in physical activities. Table 2 summarizes the findings of some of these studies.

Table 2. Female Motivations for Participation in Sport

Study

Subject/Age

Reasons for participating

Mandigo, 2008

Grades 4-7

Challenge, Autonomy-Support, Enjoyment

Killborn, 1999

High School

Fairness and Equity, Meaning and Value, Having Fun and Taking a Break

Gibbons and Humbert, 2008)

Various

Fun and Enjoyment, Social Environment, Variety, Physical skills and Personal fitness

Coleman, Cox, and Roker, 2008

Various

Friendships/Relationships, Positive Image of Sports, Personal Confidence

As can be seen from reviewing Table 2, regardless of the age, there are a number of thematic or conceptual similarities in the motivations of women to participate. Socializing, enjoyment, values alignment, and physical challenge seem to be among the overarching reasons that girls participate. These are different from the reasons boys indicate for participating, such as competition and physical competence (Thompson, Humbert and Mirwald, 2003). (Both genders list socializing as an important motivation.)

Of course, for the purposes of this study, it is just as important to determine the reasons that females do not participate, since the ultimate purpose of this study is to weigh the reasons that females in middle school choose not to take physical education once they enter high school. Gibbons and Humbert (2008) conducted an in-depth study designed to define such objections to participation. They used mixed methods for data gathering including focus groups, interviews, and survey questionnaires. Their sample was 90 female students in grade 6 and 7 from five middle schools in a Western Canadian city. Using a controlled sampling method to make sure the subjects reflected the total school district population, Gibbons and Humbert studied the subjects responses to a variety of questions designed to determine why they choose not participate in physical education. Table 3 present the findings of their study. In the first column, the thematic explanation is given, based around the analysis of responses provided by the researchers. In the second column, a highlighted actual response from the study is provided, reflecting the typical objection to participation. As can be seen in Table 3. Female students tended to list reasons against participation that indicated that their values were not being met. They enjoy variety and choice in their lifestyle, but sports does not provide choices that appeal to them. They seek to improve their personal competence, but feel they do not get enough opportunities to do so in sports. They understand the importance of health benefits from sports, but do not believe physical activities offer them the best avenue for achieving such benefits. Finally, they believe themselves to be treated inferiorly to boys in physical education classes, and this offends their emerging identities. As seen in the previous section, girls seem to have a values alignment in their approach to sport and they do not enjoy participating when they feel their participation is out of alignment with their other educational and lifestyle values.

Table 3. Reasons Middle School Females do not participate in sports

Theme

Characteristic response

Variety and Choice

"We do things I hate in PE . . . I do things I like after school and weekends . . .

like dance and judo."

Personal Competence

"I hate playing soccer when everybody else is way better than me . . . especially when I don't get to learn how . . ."

Healthy, Active Bodies

"I know that being skinny is not the same as being healthy."

Emerging Gender Equality

"In PE it seems that the teacher chooses what the boys want to do and not what we want to do."

Gibbons and Humbert argue that female student start out enjoying sports just as much as boys do, but that they grow disillusioned by high school. They suggest that this process of disillusionment begins as early as elementary school. Put simply, girls enjoy sports programs that include fun, fairness, and safety, and they begin to reject sports when they feel the activities reflect other values (p. 170).

The fact that the structure of the sport offering itself was key to female acceptance or rejection of it seemed significant. Olafson (2002) argued that "institutional barriers" such as activity choice and orientation were at the foundation of girls' rejection of sports. Felton et al. (2005) offers seven characteristics which can be incorporated into sport programming so that such barriers will not be present:

(1) Gender separation opportunities exist in classes.

(2) Students are physically active in PE classes.

(3) Noncompetitive activities are offered.

(4) Lifelong physical activity is emphasized.

(5) Classes are fun & enjoyable.

(6) Appropriate instructional methods are used (e.g., small group interaction).

(7) Behaviour skills for PE are taught. (p. 58)

This list and the findings above suggests that there is a reciprocal relationship among a number of variables the, depending on how these variables work together can either inspire females to participate or turn them off to participation. For example, when sports provide more choices in a socializing, cooperative atmosphere (positive values that draw in girls) and downplay competition and hierarchy (negative values which cause girls to reject sports), girls are more likely to participate. However, when the opposite is true -- and Gibbons and Humbert suggest that this is the case beyond elementary school physical activity -- girls reject participation. Gibbons and Humbert conclude that

If physical educators are to play a role in enhancing the health of girls and young women, their efforts need to be directed towards improving middle-years physical education programs. It is very evident that girls in middle school know what types of experiences they desire in their physical education classes. The challenge, therefore, is to develop and teach courses to meet the needs of middle-school girls and to help them see that physical activity is an essential part of their life.

The research on female participation in physical activity is generally clear. In early school years, girls enjoy participation. It seems significant that it is in these years, when all students are just developing their coordination and learning to express physicality, that sports are orientated toward fun and cooperation. However, eventually, the males take over. Competition begins to be the order of the day. And girls begin to drift away. Several studies suggested that it does not have to be this way. Garrahy (1998), for example, argues that maintenance of female motivation to participate in sports in the middle grades depends entirely on how the girls are treated within the sports programs themselves. Further, and perhaps most interestingly, Thompson, Baxter, and Mirwald (2003) consider the effect of biological age on decreasing participation for both boys and girl and found no differences related to gender. In other words, the fact that girls stop participating is not because the reach a certain age and begin to get interested in other things. Boys and girls alike develop new interests over time and both genders eventually drift away from active physical activity. However, the rate at which girls do so seem to be driven more by the institutional barriers of sports offerings and orientations than by any inherent female characteristics which cause them to fall away. It would not be too much of a cliche to say that girls don't leave sports… sports leave the girls. That is, sports initially include many elements that appeal to girls, only to remove many of those elements when sports programming changes from a cooperative and fun activity to a competitive activity during the middle school and junior high years. If Gibbons and Humbert find that girls grow disillusioned with sports and physical education, it is because the programming around those curricular areas does not a big enough effort from middle school on to speak to their interests and needs. The implications of these findings for this study are significant.

Research Design

Methodology

The study has the following objectives: identification of physical activity preferences and patterns of early adolescent females (both curricular and extra curricular); identification of barriers toward participation in physical education; examination of early adolescent females' knowledge and perceptions of the contribution of physical activity to health. Finally, validity and ethical considerations must be addressed.

Sample

This study will replicate the original conducted by Humbert & Gibbons (2008) except that the participants will be female volunteers in grades 8 and 9, enrolled in segregated compulsory physical education classes from a high school in Saskatchewan. The participants represent diverse levels of experience, interest, and achievement in physical education. All participants and parents will complete an informed consent form prior to the initiation of the study. A maximum variation sampling strategy (Patton, 2002) will be conducted to determine socio-economic status, and ethnic composition. An application to gain human ethics approval for this research will be made to the office of research administration at the affiliated university

Data Collection

Three ethnographic techniques including semi-structured focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews, and written questionnaires are used to collect data in this investigation. Patton (2002) recommends the collection of data from multiple sources to improve the trustworthiness and authenticity of the data. Similarly, Creswell (1998) defines triangulation as "corroborating evidence from different sources to shed light on a theme or perspective" (p. 202). Collecting data from these three sources afford the participants several different ways to tell about their experiences and facilitate triangulation of the data. Each participant completes one of these three techniques. Selected from the list of students who return their completed consent forms, participants are randomly assigned to one of the techniques.