Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2007 Sep 19;4:38. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-4-38.
Given the increasing importance of obesity in China, prevention interventions encouraging physical activity by middle school students are needed. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how a rapid elicitation method can be used to identify salient consequences, referents, and circumstances about physical activity as perceived by middle school students and to provide suggestions for interventions and quantitative research.
A theory-based qualitative study using a self-completion elicitation was conducted with 155 students from two middle schools in Beijing, China. Following the Theory of Planned Behavior, six open-ended questions asked students for their perceptions about performing physical activity at least 60 minutes each day: advantages of participating in physical activity; disadvantages of doing so; people who approve of participation; people who disapprove; things that make it easy; and things that make it hard. Content analysis revealed categories of salient consequences, reference groups, and circumstances.
While the three most frequently mentioned advantages elicited from the students were physical health consequences (e.g., will strengthen my body (58.7%)), four of the salient advantages were not (e.g., will improve my grades (12.2%)). Parents were the most frequently mentioned social referent (42.6% as approving; 27.7% as disapproving) when students were asked who might approve or disapprove of their participation. Circumstances perceived to hinder daily physical activity included having too many assignments and not having enough time.
While many of the beliefs about physical activity elicited from this study were similar to those found with students from England and the US, several were unique to these students from Beijing. The results of this qualitative research suggest that interventions to encourage physical activity among middle school students should address: perceived consequences of physical activity on academic achievement and other factors beyond physical health; barriers of not having enough time and having too many assignments perceived to hinder frequent physical activity; and parental approval. More rigorous research on psychosocial determinants with close-ended items developed from these open-ended data and with larger sample sizes of students is necessary. Research with parents and school staff will be needed to understand the perceptions of these stakeholder groups key to creating the students' social environment.
鉴于肥胖在中国的重要性日益增加，需要针对中学生开展鼓励其进行身体活动的预防干预措施。本研究旨在说明如何使用快速启发法来识别中学生对身体活动的感知中的显著后果、参照群体和情境，并为干预措施和定量研究提供建议。
在中国北京的两所中学进行了一项基于理论的定性研究，采用自我完成启发式方法，共有 155 名学生参与。研究基于计划行为理论，通过六个开放式问题询问学生对每天至少进行 60 分钟身体活动的看法：参与身体活动的优势；这样做的劣势；赞成参与的人；不赞成参与的人；使其变得容易的事情；使其变得困难的事情。内容分析揭示了显著后果、参照群体和情境的类别。
虽然学生们提到的最常见的三个优势是身体健康后果（例如，将增强我的身体（58.7%）），但四个显著优势却不是（例如，将提高我的成绩（12.2%））。当学生被问及谁可能赞成或不赞成他们参与时，父母是最常被提及的社会参照群体（赞成者占 42.6%，不赞成者占 27.7%）。阻碍日常身体活动的情况包括作业太多和没有足够的时间。
虽然从这项研究中得出的许多关于身体活动的信念与来自英国和美国的学生的信念相似，但也有一些是这些来自北京的学生特有的。这项定性研究的结果表明，鼓励中学生进行身体活动的干预措施应解决：身体活动对学业成绩和身心健康以外的其他因素的感知后果；阻碍频繁进行身体活动的没有足够时间和作业太多的障碍；以及父母的认可。需要用更严格的研究来检验与这些开放式数据相关的、更具有代表性的学生样本量的心理社会决定因素，并开发出更具有针对性的封闭式项目。还需要对家长和学校工作人员进行研究，以了解这些利益相关者群体对创造学生社会环境的看法。
