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Pre-service physical education teachers (PPETs) may be implementing health-related fitness testing (HRFT) in schools in the future. Thus, exploring their attitudes toward HRFT would help us understand physical education (PE) teachers' attitudes toward HRFT. This study investigated PPET attitudes toward HRFT in the USA and the effects of teacher characteristics (i.e. gender, ethnicity, year in university, and previous experience with fitness tests) on attitudes. A total of 501 PPETs (283 males, 56.5%; 218 females, 43.5%) aged 28.12 years (SD = 7.34) were included. The previously validated PPETs' attitudes toward HRFT survey was used to collect the data using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were first used to examine the validity and reliability of the instrument. Then analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance were performed to test overall attitude differences and attitude subdomain differences in teacher characteristics, respectively. The results generated by the reliable and valid scale indicated that only slightly positive overall attitudes toward HRFT were found among PPETs. Year in university had a significant effect only on the cognitive component of attitude. PPETs' previous experience with fitness tests had significant effects on all aspects of attitudes. No gender or ethnicity differences were found, however. More efforts are needed to improve fitness education in both higher education and K-12 PE programmes in order to help students develop positive attitudes and experiences toward HRFT. Future studies should focus on exploring how PETE programmes prepare PPETs for using HRFT in K-12 programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being physically fit in younger years prevents several diseases in the presence as well as in the life course. Therefore, monitoring physical fitness and motor competence through motor testing is essential for determining developmental status and identifying health-related risks. The main objectives of this systematic review were (1) to identify currently available health-related criterion-referenced standards and cut-off points for physical fitness and motor competence test items, (2) to frame the methodological background on setting health-related criterion-referenced standards and (3) to give implications for a health-related evaluation system for physical fitness and motor competence tests. The electronic data base search (PubMed, Web of Science and SURF) yielded 2062 records in total and identified six empirical studies reporting cut-off points of motor test items for children (7–10 years), as well as 30 methodological papers discussing determination approaches to health-related criterion-referenced standards. Data collection, selection and analyses followed the PRISMA guidelines. Health-related motor test standards need to be gender- and age-specific but should refer to an absolute cut-off point rather than to relative performance in the reference group. Due to the lack of data on health-related criterion referenced standards, receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curves provide a tool for the determination of cut-off points and criterion referenced standards for physical fitness and motor competence tests. A standardized approach forms the fundamental base for a globally applicable evaluation of health-related fitness tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]