Conference Theme: Community Building and Development through Physical Education and Sports”. Epidemiological data consistently indicate that levels of physical activity decline with age 1 Consistent with these trends, national survey data from Finland indicate a decline in physical activity during adolescent years with only 41{37cb68deedc28952cf539b2883fab1aeebe007ed2a99fb6afad134f549a43498} of 11-year olds and 17{37cb68deedc28952cf539b2883fab1aeebe007ed2a99fb6afad134f549a43498} of 15-year olds meeting current national guidelines for physical activity 2 Given that low levels of physical activity are related to increased risk of chronic illness later in life, and increased rates of conditions such as overweight and obesity 3 , 4 , the promotion of physical activity participation among young people is a public health priority.
We find that certain state regulations are effective in raising the number of minutes during which students are active in PE. Our results also indicate that additional PE time raises the number of days per week that students report having exercised or engaged in strength-building activities, but lowers the number of days in which students report light physical activity.
The purpose of the current protocol article is to report the development of a school-based intervention based on the trans-contextual model to promote secondary school students’ physical activity participation by fostering autonomous motivation (the PETALS trial).
It was also suggested throughout the consultation exercises that a range of stakeholders be included in the regional coordination mechanism for to develop and deliver the SPAPE Action Plan through formal and informal partnerships, including for example: Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC), Pacific Games Council (PGC), Organisation of Sports Federations of Oceania (OSFO), Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), UN Organizations, CROP agencies, university and tertiary institutions, media organizations, government and non-government stakeholders and media agencies in ensuring that the contributions of sport, physical activity and physical education are adequately integrated into the sustainable development agenda in the Pacific and embedded in national and regional policy.
In addition, key deliverables of the research will be a set of training materials and an intervention manual, which will provide step-by-step accessible instructions on how to implement the intervention and can be disseminated to schools with no specialist knowledge and minimal cost.