Background: Given levels of sedentary behavior among youth, teachers have been called upon to increase physical activity (PA) by implementing classroom PA breaks. School-based interventions enacted in classroom settings have shown promise in increasing youth PA. Yet little is known about how teacher efficacy toward implementing classroom PA breaks may influence intervention effects.
Purpose: Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how the Dearborn School Health through Integrated Nutrition and Exercise Strategies (D-SHINES) intervention, implemented across 8 schools, influenced classroom teacher's efficacy toward providing classroom PA breaks.
Methods: A mixed-methods design examined classroom teachers' efficacy toward implementing classroom PA breaks and used semi-structured interviews to better understand teachers' efficacy and implementation.
Results: Quantitative results indicated that teacher efficacy significantly increased over the intervention period and that general and institutional efficacy predicted higher amounts of PA breaks offered. Qualitative results suggested that to enhance teachers' facilitation of classroom PA breaks, one must tap into the institutional, student, and educational factors that constitute teacher efficacy.
Implications for school health: Designing interventions that focus on teacher efficacy toward classroom PA may be a viable way to increase PA breaks in schools. Implications for the whole school, whole community, whole child model are discussed.
Keywords: classroom physical activity breaks; mixed-methods; professional development; teacher efficacy; whole school-whole community-whole child.
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