Effect of practice exergames on the mood states and self-esteem of elementary school boys and girls during physical education classes: A cluster-randomized controlled natural experiment

Abstract

Reduced physical exercise can impact children's mental health. Use of active electronic games can help promote psychological health. Physical education (PE class) uses different resources, methods, and contents to promote student health. We investigated the effect of exergames on the mood and self-esteem of children and compare it that of with traditional PE classes. From a sample of 213 children (7-11 years old), 140 from 10 classes of the fourth and fifth grades of elementary school (59 boys, 81 girls; mean age 9.41±0.48 years), allocated to an experimental group (EG; n = 68; five clusters) and a PE group (PE; n = 72; five clusters), participated in this experimental controlled study. The EG practiced exergames during three 40-minute classes, and the PE group held three routine curricular PE classes. Brunel's Mood Scale and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale were applied. Repeated measures ANOVA identified differences between sexes and groups. The main results of the EG demonstrated reduced tension in girls (p <0.05; ES: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.17-1.05). Regarding sex comparisons, anger was lower in girls (F: 4.57; p <0.05; ES: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.11-1.11) in the EG. Vigor was higher in girls in the EG than in those in the PE group (F: 5.46; p <0.05; ES: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.12-1.01). The main results of the PE group indicated increased self-esteem in boys (p <0.05; ES: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.08-1.07) and reduction of girls' mental confusion (p <0.05; ES 0.58; 95% CI 0.15-1.06). Thus, exergames impact boys' and girls' self-esteem and mood, as well as traditional physical education classes. Further study on exergames in schools is essential, with longterm effects on physical and mental health. Exergames bring interesting, varied content, technology, and innovation that can increase the attractiveness of physical education.

Scoping Review on Interventions for Physical Activity and Physical Literacy Components in Brazilian School-Aged Children and Adolescents

“…Twenty-six intervention strategies were identified and organized into six dimensions. Interventions related to physical education classes were conducted in both age groups, which involved recreational activities with games, toys, and scavenger hunts that stimulated body movements [27,50,69,77,80]. Children and adolescents were provided with health education sessions such as lectures, debates, discussions, and dynamics on healthy eating, physical activity, and health [18,19, Overall, 17 and 25 intervention studies were performed in children and adolescents, respectively.…”

“…No study has evaluated PL using specific instruments/protocols for its assessment (Table 1). [18,21,[41][42][43]53,[56][57][58][59][60][61]77,80], with 13 studies. Interventions in both children and adolescents resulted in changes in the school environment; however, with children, interventions were focused on sports materials (ropes, ball, bows, cone, mat, tape and rubber bands, and track designed with colors) [56,59,66,68,76].…”

“…PA-related factors were evaluated with children in only two studies [60,77]; however, 12 studies with adolescents reported results on them [19,[22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33][37][38][39][40]51,75]. The psychological domain related to body perception, self-esteem, self-efficacy, perception of the environment, and satisfaction with PA was evaluated; however, several studies did not report any effect of these outcomes in adolescents [19,[22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33]40,51].…”

Exergame en educación: mapeando la investigación

“…Los resultados de las variables analizadas para determinar el contexto del estudio indicaron que la mayoría de los estudios tuvo un objetivo educativo (79,2%) como por ejemplo el estudio de Lau et al (2015) que analizaron los efectos de los exergames en intensidad de actividad física en escolares, frente a una minoría que tuvo un objetivo terapeútico (20,8 %) como los de Carvalho y Freitas (2018) y Graser et al (2020) que estudiaron efectos de los exergames en la rehabilitación de niños con cáncer y lesiones cerebrales respectivamente. Por esta razón, la mayoría de estudios se realizaron en la escuela o instituto (66,7 %) como por ejemplo, los estudios de Andrade et al (2020) o Quintás-Hijós et al (2020 que se realizaron en colegios españoles y brasileños respectivamente. De los estudios realizados en colegios o institutos, la mitad se realizó en horario escolar (50%), como el estudios de Finco et al (2015) que lo realizaron durante las sesiones de EF en un laboratorio instalado en el instituto, o el estudio de Takahashi et al (2018) que crearon un gimnasio interactivo (FUTUREGYM) en un colegio específico para alumnado con Necesidades Específicas de Apoyo Educativo, frente a una minoría de estudios en horario extraescolar (16,7%) como el de Sun y Gao (2016) que realizaron la intervención en el descanso entre clases, y sólo un 8,3 % se realizó en casa como el de Ufholz et al (2020) donde los participantes jugaron en sesiones en casa controlados por sus progenitores.…”

“…Por otra parte, se analizó la interacción entre la variable «objetivo educativo» con las variables «mejoras producidas» y «tipo de actividad realizada en la intervención», respectivamente. De esta forma, se observó que sólo un 10 % de los estudios indicaron un objetivo educativo para mejorar el aprendizaje motor (desarrollo de la competencia motriz) (ej: Gibbs et al, 2017), mientras que se observaron objetivos educativos intrumentales de la EF (Arnold, 1991) en un 35% de los estudios que apuntaban a producir mejoras en el desarrollo físico (ej: Cortis et al, 2020), un 45 % en otros estudios que buscaban mejoras psicológicas-emocionales (ej: Andrade et al, 2020), un 15 % que intentaban producir mejoras sociales (De la Hera, 2018) y finalmente, un 25% de los estudios trataron de fomentar estilos de vida más activos y saludables en el alumnado (ej: Ufholz et al, 2020).…”