Changing Beliefs about Health in Early Elementary School Years: Effect of a Motor Creativity Intervention

Abstract

School physical education offers an ideal venue to promote healthy habits. Motor creativity has been found to effectively increase children’s learning and attitude formation. The aim of the present study was to test for the effectiveness of an intervention promoting motor creativity through healthy lifestyle stimuli in the promotion of elementary children’s knowledge regarding health, as well as in the change of their attitudes about nutrition and exercise. One hundred twelve elementary school students participated in the study. Participants were assigned into the experimental (n = 58) and control (n = 54) groups. Students performed the TCAM and they were administered the Health Lifestyle Evaluation Instrument along with measures of attitudes towards healthy nutrition and exercise. Analyses of variance with repeated measures showed a significant increase of knowledge towards health in the intervention group. However no differences were found between the two groups regarding the attitudes towards healthy nutrition and exercise. The results provided useful information regarding the effect of motor creativity in the learning process in elementary schools.

Keywords

• attitude
• children
• elementary school
• healthy nutrition
• physical activity
• physical education