The Effects of Music on Activity Rates, Time in Activity, and Levels of Enjoyment in Junior High School Basketball

Music is a tool physical education (PE) teachers can use to help motivate students to greater physical activity (PA) rates during class activities. Music research in the PE context has found music to increase PA rates in the junior high school context (Brewer et al., 2016), that music increases the enjoyment of the PE experience for students (Barney et al., 2016) and can serve as a distraction during certain workouts (Higginson et al., 2019). This study aimed to examine the effects of music on physical activity rates (steps taken and time in activity) via pedometers of junior high school students in basketball gameplay. For this study, 270 junior high school students (157 males and 113 females) from eight intact seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade classes participated. The male and female participants attended different schools. Generally, it was found that the female participants were more active than their male counterparts when music was playing. These results and others illustrate music's effect on junior high school student PA rates.
Introduction Music can be a powerful tool for increasing a person's physical activity. For example, college students' who listened to their personal music devices perceived that they worked harder and [...]