Are primary school children attending full-day school still engaged in sports clubs?

Abstract

PurposeSchools and organized sports both offer great chances to promote physical activity among children. Full-day schools particularly allow for extensive participation in extra-curricular physical activities. However, due to time reasons, full-day schools may also prevent children from engagement in organized sports outside school. There is only little national and international research addressing the possible competition of full-day schools and providers of organized sports outside school and the potential effects on children’s physical activity behavior. In Germany’s educational system, a transformation towards more full-day schools is currently taking place. The existence of both, half-day and full-day schools, gave occasion to the following research question: Do students attending half-day and full-day school differ with respect to a) sports club membership rate and b) weekly amount of sports club training?MethodsData were collected in eleven German primary schools. Selected schools offered both half-day and full-day (minimum three days/week with at least seven hours) care. 372 students’ data (grades 1–4; N = 153 half-day, N = 219 full-day; 47.4% male, 8.8±1.2y) were eligible for analyses. We assessed sports club membership and weekly training duration via questionnaire. Statistical analyses included Chi-square and Mann-Whitney-U-Tests.Results83% of half-day school students and 67% of full-day school students were sports club members (χ2(1) = 12.31, p<.001). Weekly duration of training in sports clubs among sports club members (N = 266) also differed between the groups (mdn = 150 min in half-day, mdn = 120 min in full-day school students; z = -2.37, p = .018). Additional analyses stratified for age and gender showed similar results.ConclusionPrimary school students attending full-day schools engage less in organized sports outside school than half-day school students, regardless of age and gender. Future studies should examine if the detected lower engagement in sports club physical activity is compensated by physical activities in other settings such as school or non-organized leisure time.

Influence of an increased number of physical education lessons on the motor performance of adolescents–A non-interventional cohort study

“…It has been shown that sports club members are more physically active than non-members [ 37 ] potentially leading to higher motor performance. Furthermore, it can be suggested that more frequent PE lessons do not compete with sports club participation which is also supported by previous observations [ 5 , 38 ], although controversial results exist [ 39 ]. Consequently, training in sports clubs is suggested to form an effective complement to PE lessons [ 2 ].…”

Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior of Children in Afterschool Programs: An Accelerometer-Based Analysis in Full-Day and Half-Day Elementary Schools in Germany

“…This enables full-day school children to spend their time less sedentary and more active in ASPs as compared with half-day school children who potentially spend the early afternoon at home. On the other hand, referring data of this study, Spengler et al ( 35 ) showed that full-day school children are less engaged in organized sports outside school than are half-day school children. Furthermore, weekly duration of training in sports clubs is significantly higher in half-day school children compared with full-day school children.…”

Determinants of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in German Elementary School Physical Education Lessons

“…Selected schools were full-day schools, providing either a mandatory or optional full-day school branch. The school organization form was selected in cooperation with the responsible Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs Baden-Wuerttemberg (see Spengler et al, 2019 ). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Konstanz, Germany (approval number: 08/2019), and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.…”