1. Secondary School Students' Attitudes toward Fitness Testing
- Author
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Mercier, Kevin John
- Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to develop an instrument that has scores that are valid and reliable for measuring students' attitudes toward fitness testing. A second purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of secondary students toward fitness testing. A review of literature, an elicitation study, and a pilot study were conducted. The pilot study included 427 student completed instruments from three schools. Pilot study data analyses were conducted resulting in a proposed model for the final study. Participants for the final study were 1199 students from 13 schools which consisted of 524 boys and 675 girls. The data fit a four factor model for measuring secondary school students' attitudes toward fitness testing with the following four factors: cognitive, affective-enjoyment, affective-feelings, and affective-teacher. The fit statistics from the CFA indicated an overall good fit of the data to this model. GFI, AGFI, RMSEA, Bentler's CFI, and Bentler & Bonett's NFI scores were 0.892, 0.862, 0.080, 0.920, and 0.910, respectively. The G-C alpha reliability coefficient for the entire model was 0.902. The four factors and their reliability scores were: cognitive ([alpha] = 0.919), affective-enjoyment ([alpha] = 0.887), affective-feelings ([alpha] = 0.865), and affective-teacher ([alpha] = 0.801). Secondary school students had an overall neutral to slightly positive attitude toward fitness testing (M = 3.11, s.d. = 0.71). Highest attitudes toward fitness testing were reported in the cognitive factor (M = 3.36, s.d. = 0.983) while the lowest attitudes occurred in the affective-enjoyment factor (M = 2.52, s.d. = 1.074). A MANOVA indicated significant differences for grade (Wilks' Lambda=0.950, F(12, 3143)=2.611, p less than 0.001) and gender (Wilks' Lambda=0.902, F(4, 1188)=2.611, p less than 0.01) with an interaction effect between grade and gender (Wilks' Lambda=0.974, F(12, 3143)=2.611, p=0.002). A stepwise DFA completed on the interaction means showed that the affect-feelings factor (Wilks' Lambda=0.927, F(7, 1191)=18.035, p less than 0.001) followed by the affect-enjoyment factor (Wilks' Lambda=0.904, F(7, 1191)=13.345, p less than 0.001) were the best predictors of these differences. Boys reported higher attitudes toward fitness testing (M = 3.28, s.d. = 0.74) than girls (M = 2.97, s.d. = 0.66). Boys overall attitude mean scores fell from 3.52 (s.d. = 0.70) in 9th grade to 3.15 (s.d. = 0.72) in 12th grade. Girls overall attitude scores dropped from 3.01 (s.d. = 0.58) in 9th grade to 2.86 (s.d. = 0.77) in 12th grade. A MANOVA indicated significant differences between FitnessGram and the President's Challenge fitness tests (Wilks' Lambda=0.985, F(4, 1194)=4.431, p=0.001). DFA indicated that the cognitive factor was the predictor of these differences (Wilks' Lambda=0.989, F(1, 1197)=13.597, p=0.001). Students' whose school administered the FitnessGram reported higher overall attitudes toward fitness testing (M = 3.14, s.d. 0.69) than students whose schools administered the President's Challenge fitness test (M = 3.04, s.d. = 0.74). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
- Published
- 2011