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Background: School-based structured opportunities for physical activity can provide health-related benefits to children and youth, and contribute to international guidelines recommending 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. In 2005, the Ministry of Education in Ontario, Canada, released the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy requiring school boards to "ensure that all elementary students, including students with special needs, have a minimum of twenty minutes of sustained MVPA each school day during instructional time". This paper reports on the first provincial study evaluating implementation fidelity to the DPA policy in Ontario elementary schools and classrooms. Using an adapted conceptual framework, the study also examined associations between implementation of DPA and a number of predictors in each of these respective settings.Methods: Separate cross-sectional online surveys were conducted in 2014 with Ontario elementary school administrators and classroom teachers, based on a representative random sample of schools and classrooms. An implementation fidelity score was developed based on six required components of the DPA policy. Other survey items measured potential predictors of implementation at the school and classroom levels. Descriptive analyses included frequency distributions of implementation fidelity and predictor variables. Bivariate analyses examining associations between implementation and predictors included binary logistic regression for school level data and generalized linear mixed models for classroom level data, in order to adjust for school-level clustering effects.Results: Among administrators, 61.4 % reported implementation fidelity to the policy at the school level, while 50.0 % of teachers reported fidelity at the classroom level. Several factors were found to be significantly associated with implementation fidelity in both school and classroom settings including: awareness of policy requirements; scheduling; monitoring; use of resources and supports; perception that the policy is realistic and achievable; and specific barriers to implementation.Conclusions: Findings from the surveys indicate incomplete policy implementation and a number of factors significantly associated with implementation fidelity. The results indicate a number of important implications for policy, practice and further research, including the need for additional research to monitor implementation and its predictors, and assess the impacts of study recommendations and subsequent outcomes of a reinvigorated DPA moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a revised measure of self-efficacy to overcome barriers to moderate and vigorous physical activity in a sample of 484 high school students in Toronto, Ontario. The students had a mean age of 15.3 years. Principal axis factoring with oblique rotation yielded five factors: self-efficacy to overcome internal, harassment, physical environment, social mvironment, and responsibilities barriers. Two problematic items were removed, which resulted in a 22-item measure. Subsequent analyses were conducted on responses to this shortened measure. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor model and demonstrated age- and sexinvariance. The subscales had good internal consistency reliability. Structural regressions demonstrated a strong relationship between the resulting factors and a physical activity measure (energy expenditure), showing predictive validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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An evaluability assessment was conducted to plan a community-based, multi-strategy approach to physical activity promotion (MSAPAP) to maximize young children's physical activity in an ethno-racially and socio-economically diverse city. This assessment involved consultation with various stakeholders to develop a program logic model to diagrammatically describe the MSAPAP. First, published literature regarding physical activity was reviewed to describe interventions designed to increase children's physical activity and identify factors that contributed to program effectiveness. Secondly, key informants from mainstream service organizations and smaller community-based agencies were interviewed to determine their views on how to increase physical activity among children and families. A workgroup developed a draft logic model based on the results of the literature review and community needs assessment results. Thirdly, stakeholders were consulted about the draft model. This consisted of 12 focus groups with members of school boards (two sessions), members of community organizations (three sessions), lay home visitors who provide support to mothers of young children in ethno-racially diverse communities (one session), and parents from six cultural groups )six sessions). The logic model was revised based on the findings from this consultation. The final logic model shows children aged 3-8 years as the main target group, and parents and various community members who influence children as intermediate target groups. The MSAPAP is depicted as six strategies, which are clusters of program activities that are conceptually similar: community engagement, community assessment, accessibility, promotion, education and skill development, and inclusive programming. The logic model shows the 'cause and effect' relationships among program activities, shorter-term outcome objectives (e.g. to reduce user fees for physical activity programs) and longer-term outcome objectives (e.g. to increase the proportion of children who are physically active). The extensive community involvement in planning the MSAPAP facilitated a subsequent plan to develop, implement and evaluate selected program activities in the MSAPAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper examines school and classroom effects on Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy implementation in classrooms in Ontario, Canada. In 2005 the Ontario Ministry of Education mandated a policy requiring school boards to "ensure that all elementary students, including students with special needs, have a minimum of twenty minutes of sustained MVPA each school day during instructional time". Based on an adaptation of Chaudoir's conceptual framework, this paper contributes to understanding the extent to which school factors (as reported by administrators) and classroom factors (as reported by teachers) are associated with policy implementation fidelity at the classroom level.Methods: Cross-sectional online surveys were conducted in 2014 with elementary school administrators and teachers, based on representative random samples of schools and classrooms. A measure assessing implementation fidelity was developed from the six required components of the policy and for this paper fidelity at the classroom level is treated as the outcome variable. Several school- and classroom-level measures were also included in the surveys and a number of these were selected for inclusion here. Data from the two surveys were merged and selected variables were included in the multi-level analysis. Two-level logistic regression models were conducted to account for nesting of classrooms within schools and a series of models were conducted to identify factors associated with implementation fidelity.Results: The analytic sample for this study included 170 school administrators and 307 classroom teachers from corresponding schools. Findings from the multi-level logistic regression analyses indicated that only classroom/teacher-level factors were significantly associated with implementation fidelity at the classroom level. None of the school/administrator predictors were significantly related to fidelity. The most parsimonious model included five significant classroom/teacher predictors: teachers' perception of DPA as realistic and achievable; confidence (self-efficacy); scheduling DPA in timetables; lack of space; and lack of time.Conclusions: Findings from the study indicate the theoretical and practical importance of addressing classroom and teacher factors since they are most proximal to implementation fidelity to the policy. Several of these factors also reflect complex structural and organizational contexts, indicating that a systems approach to understanding and supporting DPA implementation fidelity is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]