Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Spring;6(2):e000166.
doi: 10.1249/tjx.0000000000000166. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Standards-based physical education in schools: The role of state laws

Kyle Sprow  1 , Frank M Perna  1 , Julien Leider  2 , Lindsey Turner  3 , Elizabeth M Piekarz-Porter  2   4 , Shannon L Michael  5 , Nancy Brener  6 , Jamie F Chriqui  2   4
Affiliations

Standards-based physical education in schools: The role of state laws

Kyle Sprow et al. Transl J Am Coll Sports Med. 2021 Spring.

Abstract

Purpose: Examine the association of state physical education (PE) laws (https://class.cancer.gov) with school policies addressing motor skill development, physical activity (PA) participation, and health-enhancing physical fitness (https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/shpps/data.htm).

Methods: National school-level data on PE standards were obtained from the 2014 School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) of US schools for analytical samples of 408-410 schools in 43 states. These data were linked to Classification of Laws Associated with School Students (CLASS) data, which reflect the strength of state-PE curriculum laws and the associated state PE curriculum standards. Logistic regressions and generalized linear models with a complementary log-log link examined associations between state law and school-level standards.

Results: Compared to having no state law, weak law (OR: 5.07, 95% CI: 1.02-25.27) or strong law (OR: 2.96, 95% CI: 1.04-8.37) was associated with higher odds of school PE standards addressing motor skill development, while only strong state law was associated with higher prevalence of addressing achievement and maintenance of physical fitness (coefficient: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.12, 1.14). State laws were not associated with addressing PA participation.

Conclusions: Schools were more likely to address motor skills and physical fitness development when states had strong PE laws.

Keywords: CLASS; Physical education; legal epidemiology; motor skills; physical fitness; policy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Adjusted Prevalence of School PE Standards by State Law Coding Note: Adjusted prevalence estimates were computed from the three models, showing average predicted levels of the given PE standards at each level of state law coding. Specifically, the adjusted prevalence shows the average predicted prevalence of each standard if all schools were exposed to the given level of state law. *Indicates difference relative to “no policy” coding is statistically significant at the p<.05 level in regression model.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. Washington, D.C.; 2018. Available from: https://health.gov/paguidelines/second-edition/pdf/Physical_Activity_Gui....
    1. The Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI). 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health. Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health; 2016
    1. Freedman DS, Khan LK, Serdula MK, Dietz WH, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. Racial differences in the tracking of childhood BMI to adulthood. Obesity Research. 2005;13(5):928–935. - PubMed
    1. Skinner AC, Ravanbakht SN, Skelton JA, Perrin EM, Armstrong SC. Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity in US children, 1999–2016. Pediatrics. 2018;141(3). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carlson SA, Fulton JE, Pratt M, Yang Z, Adams EK. Inadequate physical activity and health care expenditures in the United States. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. 2015;57(4):315–323. - PMC - PubMed