The goal of this clinical trial is to test if a multilevel (school, home) physical activity
      intervention for school-aged (3rd-5th grade) children can increase physical activity levels.
      The main question[s] it aims to answer are:

        -  The impact of the multilevel program on children's physical literacy and physical
           activity over one school year. Hypothesis:

        -  Whether the program effects are different by children's gender or weight status

        -  Whether changes in children's ability, confidence and motivation for physical activity
           are related to changes in physical activity levels.

      Schools will be randomly assigned to receive the multilevel intervention or a control group.

      Participants in the intervention group will receive a new school curriculum during regular
      physical education classes and information for families on what school activities can be done
      at home.

      Researchers will compare outcomes according to intervention and control group assignments.

Supporting Physical Literacy at School and Home

Physical Inactivity

Low levels of physical activity (PA) among youth remain a significant public health problem,
      with most U.S. children falling short on the recommended 60 minutes of daily
      moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Research shows that this gap
      disproportionately affects population subgroups, particularly children who are female,
      overweight/obese, or from low socioeconomic areas. Interventions are needed that can
      equitably increase children's PA. To address this gap, there has been a focus in the U.S. and
      abroad on increasing children's physical literacy (PL), which can be defined as the ability,
      confidence, and motivation to be physically active for life. While PL-focused interventions
      hold promise in concept, there is little empirical evidence of effectiveness and differential
      effects by subgroups are not understood. Thus, the overall objective is to increase
      children's PA through a multilevel, comprehensive PL-focused program that will reach children
      both at school and at home. The overarching hypothesis is that the PL-focused program will
      have positive effects on elementary schoolchildren's PL and, in turn, PA.

      Aims include testing the multilevel Rising New York Road Runners (RNYRR) program using a
      2-arm, group randomized controlled trial (RCT) with n=400 3rd-5th grade students from
      low-income schools receiving either the multilevel RNYRR program (n=4) or
      delayed-intervention control (n=4).

      Aim 3: To evaluate the impact of the RNYRR program on children's physical literacy (PL) and
      physical activity (PA) (total daily volume and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA)) over one
      school year. Hypothesis: Children who attend schools with the RNYRR programming will increase
      PL and PA (total daily volume and MVPA) relative to children in control schools.

      Aim 3a: To examine whether RNYRR program effects on children's PL and PA differ by sex or
      weight status.

      Aim 3b: To test whether changes in PL and PL subdomains (e.g. ability, confidence,
      motivation) mediate changes in daily total PA volume or MVPA.

The Rising New York Road Runners program

Supporting Physical Literacy at School and Home (SPLASH) Study

Children will wear an Actigraph accelerometer for 7 days on their right hip at study baseline (prior to intervention). The accelerometer measures vertical acceleration across three planes and computes a total volume of movement over a specified amount of time set by the researcher. This information will also be used to computer time spent in intensity-specific physical activity using established cutpoints.

Assistant Professor

Trained staff will administer the Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth tool to assess children's performance across 18 different tasks that assess competence in fundamental movement skill domain areas: Running, locomotion, object control and balance.

The Rising New York Road Runners program: A School-based physical education curriculum with family engagement component.

Supporting Physical Literacy at School and Home

About this trial

Study ID

Status

Type

Phase

Placebo

Accepting

Trial Timing

What is this trial about?

What are the participation requirements?