Characteristics of 'tween' participants and non-participants in the VERB™ summer scorecard physical activity promotion program

Abstract

Creating community-based opportunities for youth to be physically active is challenging for many municipalities. A Lexington, Kentucky community coalition designed and piloted a physical activity program, 'VERB™ summer scorecard (VSS)', leveraging the brand equity of the national VERB™--It's What You Do! campaign. Key elements of VSS subsequently were adopted in Sarasota County, FL. This study identified characteristics of Sarasota's VSS participants and non-participants. Students in Grades 5-8 from six randomly selected public schools completed a survey assessing VSS participation, physical activity level, psychosocial variables, parental support for physical activity and demographics. Logistic regression showed that VSS participants were more likely to be from Grades 5 to 6 versus Grades 7 and 8 [odds ratio (OR) = 6.055] and perceive high versus low parental support for physical activity (OR = 4.627). Moreover, for each unit rise in self-efficacy, the odds of VSS participation rose by 1.839. Chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis suggested an interaction effect between grade and school socioeconomic status (SES), with a large proportion of seventh and eighth graders from high SES schools being non-participants (76.6%). A VSS-style program can be expected to be more effective with tweens who are younger, in a middle SES school, having high self-efficacy and high parental support for physical activity.