Promoting Pupils' Physical Literacy

This pilot study aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a previously developed and tested physical literacy (PL) intervention. Regular participation in physical activity (PA) through life can improve health and reduce the risk of developing several chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. However, a considerable number of Danish children and adolescents do not meet national PA recommendations. Over the last few years, the construct of PL has gained popularity around the world and has become recognized as a proximal measure for lifelong engagement in PA. PL is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive concept describing an individual's prerequisites to participate in and adhere to physical activities throughout the life course PL includes the elements motivation, confidence, motor skills, physical capacity, knowledge and understanding. In Denmark, development towards theoretically driven and evidence-based PL interventions that aim to increase children's PL have not yet begun. A promising and internationally tested intervention, the Youth Physical Activity Towards Health (Y-PATH), is based on the theory of PL and has proven to be effectful on children's PA levels and motor skills. The Promoting Pupils' Physical Literacy (3 PL) project aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of the previously developed and tested Y-PATH intervention in a Danish context among pupils (9-11 years of age). The hypothesis is that a revised 3 PL intervention protocol, aiming to increase pupils' PL, is ready for effectiveness testing by the end of this project.

Four schools will be recruited and randomly assigned to intervention or control condition. The primary outcomes include the feasibility and acceptability of the 3 PL intervention and will be in concordance with guidance proposed by the Medical Research Council and The Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development. Feasibility of the practicality and recruitment process will be assessed within a document log administered by the project group. The acceptability including demand and experiences, and the intervention implementation degree (secondary outcome) will be evaluated by short bimonthly questionnaires to teachers and interviews with pupils, teachers, parents, and school managers. Preliminary effectiveness (secondary outcome) will be tested by comparing changes in pupils' PL assessed with the Danish Assessment of Physical Literacy (DAPL) tool.

First and foremost, the testing of feasibility and acceptability of a previously developed international intervention will provide a revised 3 PL intervention, a Template for Intervention Description and Replication TIDieR checklist and a protocol, which will provide a solid empirical and theoretical foundation for a future upscaled effectiveness study. The development of a TIDieR checklist and a protocol provides international and national researchers the opportunity to use and compare effectiveness across countries and cultures.

Inclusion criteria

School/class-level

• Non-special needs municipal school classes
• Classes that are not in other school development or research projects which would most likely influence and bias the results

Pupil-level

• Pupils with parents/guardians who have provided written informed consent, allowing their child to participate
• Pupils who have provide an oral assessment

Exclusion criteria

• Pupils who do not live up to the inclusion criteria