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The benefits of recess can be reaped by all students regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or gender and at relatively little cost. The purpose of this study was to examine physical activity (PA) variables related to the recess PA patterns of third and fourth grade children and the social preferences and individuals influencing their PA (friends and parents). Data were collected on students (N = 115) utilizing the System of Observing Children’s Activity and Relationships during Play (SOCARP) instrument. In addition, each child was interviewed during the recess period in which SOCARP was completed. Results found that boys spent significantly more time being very active (t (95.64) = 3.252, d = .62, p < .008) than girls and preferred sport activities (t = (73.62) 5.64, d = 1.14, p < .0125) in large groups (t (69.34) = 4.036, d = .83, p < .0125). Meanwhile, girls preferred locomotor activities (t (113) = 3.19, d = .60, p < .0125), sedentary activities (t (113) = 2.829, d = .53, p < .0125) and smaller groups (t (112.63) = 4.259, d = .79, p < .0125). All 115 participants indicated that they wanted to spend time with their friends during recess.

Volunteers in sport are indispensable, but there is a dearth of systematic research in volunteer retention. The focus of this study was to investigate three different volunteer-retention models incorporating person–task fit (P–T fit), person–organization fit (P–O fit), managerial treatment (MT), empowerment, and intention to continue volunteering. Using structural equation modeling, data from 515 volunteers in the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) were compared across a fully mediated model, a partially mediated model, and a direct-effects model. The results of the fully mediated model, in which empowerment mediated the relationship between P–T fit, P–O fit, MT, and intention to continue volunteering, fit well and better than the other two models. P–T fit, P–O fit, and MT jointly explained 46.8% of variance in empowerment, and empowerment explained 13.5% of variance in intention to continue. Volunteer organizations need to focus on empowering their volunteers through the fit of the volunteer to the task, organization, and appropriate managerial treatment.

Retaining volunteers is a critical issue for sport organizations utilizing volunteer labor. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the theory of work adjustment, psychological contract theory, two frameworks (person-environment fit and empowerment), and previous empirical results, we proposed and tested three models to explain intention to continue volunteering with 224 volunteers from the Special Olympics State Summer Games. We accepted a model in which Empowerment fully mediated the relationship between Person-Environment Fit and Intention to Continue Volunteering. We also found that Psychological Contract Fulfillment moderated the relationship between Fit and Empowerment.

In 2004, Congress passed the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act that requires schools to implement a wellness plan. Grounded in Ecological Systems Theory (EST) (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979), the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the legislation, discover what measures have been taken to enact the legislation, gauge how the legislation has impacted the work environment of physical educators, and better understand EST in relation to the legislation at the level of the microsystem. In total, 51 individuals participated in in-depth interviews that were triangulated and inductively/deductively coded. The results indicate that (a) principals and physical education teachers had limited knowledge of the plan, (b) school nutrition programs profited more than physical education, (c) physical education is becoming less marginalized, (d) physical education teachers missed an opportunity to use the legislation for program improvement, and (e) individuals at different levels of the system need to interact.

Catherine Ennis was an educator, researcher, mentor, and innovator in the field of physical education. As mentor for doctoral students and early-career researchers, she advocated the importance of developing a research agenda to guide and connect one’s scholarship. The central feature of a research plan, she argued, was a guiding theoretical framework that helps scholars interpret their findings and make connections to larger bodies of literature. In this article, the authors discuss Ennis’s position that theory should guide and connect research in physical education and provide examples of how she developed complementary research agendas throughout her career that were connected to constructivist and social justice theories. The goal of both these research agendas was to improve the experiences of children and teachers in physical education programs. In concluding, the authors connect Ennis’s use of constructivist and social justice theories to the ethic of care and make recommendations for teacher education programs.

The objective of the study was to see whether a teacher-coach exhibits different types of leadership behavior when s/he teaches a PE class and coaches a group of athletes. The participants in this study were 17–18 year old second-year preuniversity students from two local junior colleges in Singapore. A total of 159 students of mixed gender participated, including 80 PE students and 79 student-athletes from floorball, canoeing, and shooting teams. All of the 159 students were taught or coached by three (one male and two female) PE teachers, who performed the dual roles of a PE teacher-coach in the school. The data collection instrument used in this study was the Leadership Scale for Sports (Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980) measuring five leadership behaviors. A multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that democratic decision making accounted for most of the differences between the PE students’ and student-athletes’ perceived leadership behavior of their teacher-coaches; the student-athletes perceived their coaches to provide training and instruction more than did the PE students. In addition to training and instruction, the student-athletes perceived more positive feedback given to them than did the PE students. For decision making style, students in PE class perceived more democratic decision making than athletes in school teams. The social support subscale did not show statistically significant group difference.

This study examined physical activity (PA) variables related to recess PA patterns of kindergarten, first and second grade children, and the social preferences and individuals influencing their PA. Data collected (N = 147) used the System of Observing Children’s Activity and Relationships during Play (SOCARP) instrument. Children were interviewed. Kindergarten boys spent a significantly higher percentage of time in MVPA (t = 3.137, d = .96, p < .008). Kindergarten girls spent significantly more time standing (t = 3.548, d = 1.07, p < .008). Second grade boys spent a significantly (t = 4.44, d = 1.98, p < .0125) more time in sport activities. Second grade girls spent significantly more time in sedentary (t = 4.399, d = 1.11, p < .0125) and locomotor (t = 3.533, d = .899, p < .0125) activities. Participants articulated the prominence of friends, engaging in games/activities, and playing on the playground equipment.