Effects of early morning physical activity on elementary school students’ physical fitness and sociality

Abstract

As part of the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program, we investigated how early morning physical activity affects elementary school students’ physical fitness and sociality. Seventy-five boys in 6th grade of one elementary school located in G Metropolitan City, Korea comprised the experimental group that participated in early morning physical activity for 6 months. The control group did not perform said activities. Experimental design for this study adopted pre- and post-measurement and comparison methods between groups. Collected data were analyzed with analyses of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc tests. The experimental group showed significant differences in the improvement of cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle strength among the sub-elements of physical fitness compared to controls. They also showed significant differences in the development of sociability, activity, autonomy, stability, and dominance among the sub-factors of sociality compared to controls. We elucidated the importance of early morning physical activity performed before school, which has implications for schools’ physical education programs.