Page 45 - Sember, Vedrana, and Shawnda A. Morrison. 2018. The Mind-Body Connection. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 45
Physical Activity Research
Quantifying Physical Activity
Physical activity can be quantified according to frequency (how of-
ten?), intensity (how hard?), duration (how long?), and mode (what
type?) (Chen & Bassett, 2005). If the habitual physical activity is re-
quired, some variation should be taken into account, because a reg-
ular physical activity is a behavior which can occur only as a result
of skeletal muscle activity that is supported by energy expenditure
(Armstrong & Welsman, 2006).
Determining physical activity needs to be socially accepted, should
not burden the children with major equipment and should only
minimally interfere physical activity of the child (Armstrong & Wels-
man, 2006; Livingstone, Robson, Wallace, & McKinley, 2003). Re-
searchers in the last decade developed a series of methods for
identifying and measuring physical activity for children. Based on
the literature review the most commonly used scientific methods
for determining physical activity are: direct observation or object-
ively assessed physical activity and indirect or subjectively assessed
physical activity (Kohl, Fulton, & Caspersen, 2000; Welk, Corbin, &
Dale, 2000).
The subjective measure is less reliable than objective and is more
easily administered to a population of groups. Subjective methods
possess various limitations regarding their reliability and validity
and are most commonly used to increase validity and reliability of
individual instruments (Shephard, 2003). Direct measures are be-
lieved to remove many of the issues of recall and response bias
43
Quantifying Physical Activity
Physical activity can be quantified according to frequency (how of-
ten?), intensity (how hard?), duration (how long?), and mode (what
type?) (Chen & Bassett, 2005). If the habitual physical activity is re-
quired, some variation should be taken into account, because a reg-
ular physical activity is a behavior which can occur only as a result
of skeletal muscle activity that is supported by energy expenditure
(Armstrong & Welsman, 2006).
Determining physical activity needs to be socially accepted, should
not burden the children with major equipment and should only
minimally interfere physical activity of the child (Armstrong & Wels-
man, 2006; Livingstone, Robson, Wallace, & McKinley, 2003). Re-
searchers in the last decade developed a series of methods for
identifying and measuring physical activity for children. Based on
the literature review the most commonly used scientific methods
for determining physical activity are: direct observation or object-
ively assessed physical activity and indirect or subjectively assessed
physical activity (Kohl, Fulton, & Caspersen, 2000; Welk, Corbin, &
Dale, 2000).
The subjective measure is less reliable than objective and is more
easily administered to a population of groups. Subjective methods
possess various limitations regarding their reliability and validity
and are most commonly used to increase validity and reliability of
individual instruments (Shephard, 2003). Direct measures are be-
lieved to remove many of the issues of recall and response bias
43
