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This paper on school-based physical activity and health behaviors among adolescent students is grounded in the public health literature, various psychosocial theories, and the coordinated school health ecology model. I address three areas: 1) psychosocial influences on youth physical activity patterns, 2) youth physical activity patterns, and 3) comprehensive school health programming (healthy and active schools). I provide an overview and illustrative examples for each section from my own work.

In the present investigation a questionnaire was developed to assess physical education teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching classes in which their students were engaged in high levels of physical activity (i.e., at least 50% of class time). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the development of a 16-item, 4-factor, multidimensional physical education teachers’ physical activity self-efficacy scale (PETPAS) that produced reliable and valid scores. The Student factor reflected teachers’ efficacy for managing students who didn’t enjoy or value physical activity. The Time factor was indicative of teachers’ efficacy when they didn’t have enough time to teach. The Space factor reflected teachers’ efficacy perceptions when they had difficulty teaching because of a lack of space. Finally, the Institution factor was composed of questions that represented teachers’ efficacy beliefs for overcoming a lack of institutional support. The results of the current study provide preliminary psychometric support for the PETPAS.

It was the purpose of this study to examine students’ perspectives on three teaching strategies. Seventy middle school students were interviewed, and they rank ordered the strategies. A constant comparison process guided the interview data analysis, while the rank order data were analyzed via descriptive statistics and a Friedman Analysis of Variance by Ranks. Two key concepts that influenced students’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the teaching strategies were their conceptions of the affective dimensions of each strategy and their knowledge beliefs.