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SPORTSCIENCE · sportsci.org
News & Comment / Training & Performance
Physical Activity and Sport Studies in Childhood and Adolescence at
the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European College of Sport Science
Ross D Neville
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018 (sportsci.org/2018/ECSSpape.htm)
Centre for Sport Studies, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, University College Dublin (UCD), Dub-
lin, Ireland. Email. Reviewer: Kyriaki Makopoulou, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
The number and scope of presentations on youth physical activity was im-
pressive at this second-biggest ever ECSS conference. Accessing Abstracts:
links to a search engine and downloads. The Right-On Factor: a plenary on
determinants of population voluntary exercise and the six most interesting
presentations for physical educators and school-sports practitioners. Skills
and Competencies in Youth: influence of implicit attitudes on daily physical
activity (PA); relationship between perceived and objectively measured motor
competence; cross-cultural differences in perceived and objectively meas-
ured motor competence; integration of new training protocols into physical
education (PE) and effect on skills and competencies; scheduling of object
control and locomotor activities in PE and effects on motor competence; rela-
tionship between motor competence and cognitive ability in special popula-
tions; new methods of assessing fundamental movements skills in PE. Opti-
mizing Physical Education: contribution of school PE classes to increasing
activity levels in adolescents; PE teacher behaviors and effects on life skills,
moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), motivation in special popula-
tions; prioritization of PE in the middle east; workload of PE teachers in
South East Asia. Active Educating: effect of all-day schooling on MVPA; ef-
fect of standing desks on MVPA and fatigue; effect of short classroom-based
PA breaks on primary school children's motivation to learning and well-being;
physical benefits of participation in "the Daily Mile" above engagement in reg-
ular PE. Mental Health: review of reviews on the association between PA,
self-esteem and self-concept; growing up in Ireland, and the effect of partici-
pation in sport on psychological difficulties in childhood. KEYWORDS: ado-
lescents; children; classroom; competence; development; lessons; mental
health; motor; movement; physical activity; physical education; school; self-
esteem; skills; teachers. ABBREVIATIONS: INT, integrative neuromuscular
training; MVPA, moderate-vigorous physical activity; PA, physical activity;
PE, physical education; SDT, self-determination theory.
Reprint pdf · Reprint docx
The following is a report on ECSS 2018 from catch up with colleagues I used to work with at
my home city, Dublin. The usual Irish cead mile the University of Birmingham.
failte (a hundred thousand welcomes) was ex- Compliments to the conference committee and
tended to delegates and there was uninterrupted chairs, Marie Murphy (Ulster University), Colin
sunshine with >20°C heat. Dublin's iteration of Boreham (University College Dublin) and
ECSS was the second biggest yet. A special Giuseppi De Vito (University College Dublin).
mention has to go to our closest colleagues Congratulations also goes to Massimiliano Dit-
across the Irish Sea in the UK. The representa- roilo, who led the impressive volunteering effort
tion from English, Scottish and Welsh universi- supporting session chairs and presenters. Many
ties was particularly impressive. For the first volunteers were themselves presenting at a con-
time in a long time–according to ECSS President ference for the first time.
Joan Duda–representation from English univer- So, what is the focus of this report? At the re-
sities topped the usual majority representation quest of Will Hopkins, I have focused on "any-
from Japan. It was also a wonderful occasion to thing except for the performance of competitive
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018Neville: ECSS Conference Page 53
athletes!" Since the majority of my recent re- cause the effect of interventions aimed at in-
search has been in physical education (PE) and creasing population physical activity will be
teacher education, I have focused on physical ac- modified by genetic factors to some extent, but
tivity (PA) and school sports studies/interven- the take-home message is one of hope rather than
tions in childhood and adolescence. The ECSS despair.
young investigator award in the mini-oral My own threshold for having attended a mean-
presentation category was won in this area. Well ingful conference is somewhat different. I have
done to Henri Tilga of the University of Tartu, identified six presentations that were Right on!:
Estonia–abstract reviewed below. either clearly progressive (i.e., evidence of good
Accessing Abstracts
practice in new settings or in developing nations)
To find abstracts in your area of interest, go to or reaffirming positive messages for practition-
the program page at Dublin conference site, ers working in school settings (i.e., evidence of
where you can link to pages for each tier of an intervention that might help PE teachers, or
presentation. Or download PDFs of the full pro- evidence of a beneficial intervention that was de-
gram and the full book of abstracts. To find the livered by PE teachers). In order of appearance
presentations I have reviewed, copy the pre- below: the effects of plyometric training with
senter's name and initial shown in brackets […] school children; effects of scheduling activities
into the search engine, or if you have down- in PE sessions on motor competence; the extent
loaded the PDF of the abstracts, copy into the ad- to which life-skills development is supported or
vanced search form (Ctrl-Shift-F) in the Adobe inhibited by autonomy supportive and control-
Acrobat PDF reader. Abstracts for this confer- ling teaching in PE; the effects of a web-based
ence will eventually join those of previous con- intervention on PE teachers' autonomy support-
ferences in the EDSS database (login required). ive and controlling behavior; physiological pro-
If you can't find your presentation in this re- files of the first Saudi female PE teachers; and
port, I offer two reasons as apologies: as part of workload of PE teachers in Singapore.
the conference organizing team, I had chair du- Skills and Competencies in Youth
ties which took me away from sessions which I Manuel Muecke presented research on the in-
would have been naturally inclined to attend and fluence of implicit attitudes on daily PA in 11-
report on; and program clashes meant that I often to 14-year old children. Recent emphasis on the
had to choose between several sessions that I role of digitally-mediated social influences on
would have attended. sporting preferences and PA levels in this age
The Right-On Factor
group makes this area (of implicit-associations
So, what is actually worth reporting? For a research) particularly important. Grasping the
conference to be worthwhile, Will Hopkins has effect of implicit attitudes is difficult by defini-
a smallest important threshold of at least one tion. However, from what I garnered from my
presentation that, quote, makes him say Wow! notes and the abstract, this research is suggesting
Will and I agreed that a plenary on determi- that implicit attitudes are related more closely to
nants of regular voluntary exercise [DE the quality (rather than the quantity) of PA. Or,
GEUS, E.] was worthy of this endorsement. Af- as Manuel put it in the abstract, "…basic motor
ter presenting convincing evidence that genetic competencies, but not the amount of everyday
factors are the main determinants of physical ac- moderate-to-vigorous physical activity
tivity in adults, he put up this "inequality": (MVPA), are related to non-conscious attitudes."
The effect size was not presented, though it ap-
Genetics ≠ Predestination.
peared to be a small to moderate association. The
To explain, he then got us all to read out loud:
sceptic in me would question the degree to which
Genetics are about the variance. the computerized implicit attitudes task was it-
Interventions are about the mean. self simply measuring accuracy and response-
In other words, genetic factors are responsible
time motor competency [MUECKE, M.].
for differences in physical activity between indi-
My notes state that Visa issues prevented a
viduals, but with an intervention you can make
group from China presenting on the differences
everyone more active without altering the ge-
in perceived physical abilities and objectively
netic contribution. It's not quite that simple, be-
measured motor competency among German
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018Neville: ECSS Conference Page 54 and Chinese children aged 6-8 years. Alt- Raquel also noted that future research should as- hough the abstract gives no rationale for the sess potential benefits of INT using motor com- comparison of children from these two coun- petency measures which isolate balance skills. tries, East-West cultural differences were obvi- For a really well written abstract in this broad ously under investigation. Results from the ab- area, see the poster by Olyvia Donti from the stract appear to indicate that the only significant United States Sports Academy (USSA) in differences were in perceived motor ability–or, Greece (not America!) [DONTI, O.]. She re- more accurately, in self-efficacy (the children's ported that plyometric training is beneficial for belief in their ability to successfully execute the primary schoolchildren aged 8, and that the behaviors necessary to achieve a desired out- benefits to a child's ability to change direction, come). Unfortunately, the abstract gives no indi- jump, and sprint were small, moderate and cation of the size or direction of the difference. large, respectively. Olyvia's poster gets a Do German children perceive themselves as big Right on! for presenting magnitudes. I would more efficacious than Chinese children? Beats have given the poster a Wow! for presenting con- me! There is a reaffirmation to practitioners here fidence limits (as opposed to p values) and for of the importance of sensitivity to cultural differ- using Will Hopkins’ thresholds (which are well- ence in PE [YIN ET AL.]. For a related poster accepted in sport science as modification of Co- presentation undertaken in an English context hen's). A trial comparing plyometrics and inte- comparing early and middle childhood see grative neuromuscular training would make [LAWSON, C.]. for an interesting future study. Leanne Walker presented a study from her The final presentation of the session was from PhD at Coventry University, in which she as- Silke De Waelle from Ghent University in Bel- sessed whether integrative neuromuscular gium, who presented on the relationship between training (INT) should be incorporated into PE in actual motor competence and four different in- 9- to 10-year olds (middle childhood). I recall struments for measuring perceived motor com- Leanne reporting enthusiastically that it should. petence. Her subject group were secondary INT was associated with improvements in both school students across ten different schools. fundamental motor skills and sprint speed. Silke reported statistically significant differ- Statistical significance was used throughout the ences among the instruments; however, the size presentation. It would have been really neat to of these differences was clearly trivial when I see the magnitude and uncertainty of the effects compared them using resources here at too–especially given the potential practical ap- sportsci.org (all r < 0.1). The implication for me plication. From what I can tell, the p values ap- at least is that it doesn't really matter what meas- pear to be presented incorrectly in the abstract (p ure of perceived motor competence you use. A > rather than p
Neville: ECSS Conference Page 55
(INT) in primary school PE (6-7 year old chil- The focus here seems to be on embracing diver-
dren). In other words, does programming mat- sity and inclusion in mainstream classroom set-
ter? Yes, it does –scheduling object control skills tings and challenging PE teachers to cater for in-
first in the INT session was additionally benefi- dividualized programming and differentiated
cial to the development of motor competence learning.
(over scheduling locomotor first, and over a con- Optimizing Physical Education
trol condition) [DUNCAN, M.]. I give Michael's There was much agreement across the confer-
presentation a Right on!, because he cut through a ence that the school setting and PE lessons in
lot of the jargon in this field by saying that INT particular could be improved to promote benefi-
is "just good PE". Though, as with [WALKER, cial bio-psycho-social outcomes in children.
L.J.] and [FONT-LLADO, R.], some indication German Ruiz-Tendero, from Complutense
of effect sizes and magnitudes would have en- University of Madrid, presented on the contri-
hanced the practical relevance of the study. Dun- bution of school PE classes to increasing ac-
can's lab at Coventry University seems to be pro- tivity in adolescents (a question which was
ducing a number of PhDs in this area, so any pro- asked across a number of sessions). The subjects
spective researchers in this area should definitely of this research were secondary school children
check out these abstracts. in Northern Spain. There were some language
According to research presented by Wei-Ya barriers here that made the presentation and the
Ma from the National Taiwan Normal Univer- abstract difficult to interpret. (I can only imagine
sity, developing motor coordination in chil- how difficult it is to present in a second lan-
dren with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is guage.) However, German seemed to be report-
especially important. There are at least two rea- ing that, on a PE day, ~65% of children reported
sons for this: children with ASD perform poorer meeting the PA recommendations, compared
in motor tasks than typically developing chil- with ~40% on non-PE days. The implication
dren; and the relationship between motor coor- here, of course, is that in Northern Spain at least,
dination and cognitive ability is stronger in PE can contribute to children's achievement of
children with ASD than in typically developing recommended daily PA. The use of self-report
children [MA, W.Y.]. As with [MUECKE, M.], data on PA was heavily scrutinized by the audi-
reviewed above, I would like clarification on the ence, however [RUIZ-TENDERO, G.].
extent to which the cognitive ability tasks were What about optimizing the work of physical
themselves assessing motor competency. That educators? There is actually some consensus
another group found no benefits to cognition of within the literature that much of the opportunity
an intervention in ASD children [SUNG, M.C.] for optimizing PE is in the quality of delivery
reaffirms my suspicion here. and in extent to which a positive PE environment
There was one more presentation in this area can be supported by teacher behaviors. My fel-
worth highlighting. For any PE researchers or low Irishman Lorcan Cronin gets a big Right on!
practitioners who are interested in assessment of for delivering a presentation in this area – one of
fundamental motor skills in elementary and the clearest and most concise presentations that I
middle school students, please read an abstract sat in on all week. His focus was on male and
from Université de Moncton in Canada about the female secondary school students in England
validation of a new PE criteria-based test bat- and Ireland and the degree to which life skills
tery. I think that this presentation was really use- development in PE can be supported or inhib-
ful for highlighting what is happening in their ited by autonomy supportive and controlling
lab. I personally found that there was a lot of teaching, respectively. The outcomes of the re-
content to take in here in ten minutes. However, search replicate those from a great many self-de-
clearly, Iancu and his collaborators gave the au- termination theory (SDT) studies which have
dience a sense of some very rigorous pedagogi- been conducted in PA, PE and school sport: that
cal work in progress [IANCU, H.D]. It was also autonomy supportive teacher behaviors are pos-
interesting to see a trend towards standardization itively associated with life skills development;
of assessment in PE in the North American con- and that life-skills development can be enhanced
text though. This trend seems very much at odds through the satisfaction of pupil needs for auton-
with my experience of PE research in the UK. omy, competence and relatedness [CRONIN,
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018Neville: ECSS Conference Page 56
L.]. See also [TILGA, H.] for a similar study us- schools. According to Stephanie, the demands of
ing a randomized controlled trial and [KNISEL, other subjects–subjects which are assessed more
E.] for a similar study in youths from low-in- formally at school–were a major factor inhibit-
come families. ing interest in PE. It would be ironic if children
A Right on! also goes to Young Investigator with severe physical and intellectual impair-
Award winner Henri Tilga from the University ments do not have the luxury of prioritizing en-
of Tartu, Estonia, who presented outcomes from gagement in PE over preparedness for "more im-
a randomized controlled trial evaluating the ef- portant" literacy- and numeracy-based assess-
fect of a web-based PE intervention on teach- ment–ironic, given the weight of the evidence on
ers and pupils. As with [CRONIN, L.] above, the relationship between MVPA, engagement in
Henri's data replicates tenets of SDT in a new sport and in meaningful PE, and cognitive abil-
context: (web-based SDT interventions can en- ity. See [MEMMERT, D.] [NEVILLE, R.D.]
hance autonomy supportive teacher behaviors; [SUNG, M.C.] [SHIMANO, A.].
and their pupils also report that they are more au- The optimization of PE and continued trend
tonomy supportive. When asked about chal- towards gender equity in the Middle East gives
lenges associated with the web-based interven- me occasion for a fifth Right on! Well, kind of.
tion, Henri said that regular checks on the fidel- Mohammad Alahmadi from Taibah University
ity of the intervention were key [TILGA, H.]. in Saudi Arabia was thrilled to announce that, for
Another PhD researcher from the University the first time in Saudi Arabia, girls at public
of Tartu, Hanna Kalajas, also added to the re- school will be taught PE. The problem he iden-
search on self-determination theory in PE. tified, however, was that there was still no one
Here, however, Hanna showed that autonomy sufficiently qualified to teach them, because the
supportive teacher behaviors were positively as- first cohort of Saudi Arabian PE teachers are not
sociated with MVPA in pupils. Or, more specif- due to graduate for another three years. In the
ically, "PE teachers autonomy supportive behav- meantime, Mohammad reported that fitness and
ior was indirectly related to… MVPA through nutrition graduates have been recruited to fill the
competence need satisfaction and students' in- gap, and he was interested to see how they
trinsic motivation". This finding reaffirms the shaped up by assessing their fitness profiles.
link between intrinsic motivation and PA–and Mohammad reported that the bodyfat percent-
evidence that teachers can play an important me- age of these incumbent PE teachers is well in ex-
diating role. For a similar line of research which cess of international norms, so the suitability of
assesses differences in the extent to which male this group to lead PE has been called into ques-
and female PE teachers provide psychological tion. He was asked why he had not focused in
needs support, see [CASTILLO, I.]. Again, I this study on much more important pedagogical
highlight the lack of data in the abstract, which matters, such as the preparedness of these new
makes it impossible for other researchers to in- teachers, to which he responded "because I am a
corporate these outcomes into their future stud- physiologist!" [ALAHMADI, M]
ies and systematic reviews. A final nod to the work of PE teachers secures
For two more studies on the effects of pro- Right on! number six. In a quick-fire two-minute
gramming relatedness-based activities in PE, oral presentation, Muhammad Ridhuan Johari
see posters from [UENO, K.] and [MARINHO, (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
A.]. The simple message here–given appropriate reported that PE teachers in Singapore work at
programming of activities and scaffolding of least as hard as cable workers and much harder
learning by teachers, pupils can also satisfy than steel workers–at an average age of 40 years
each other's needs in PE. old too… Take from this what you will!
Stephanie Girard presented on a very topical [JOHARI, M.R.]. A related presentation by the
issue–the extent to which PE teachers could en- same group also reveals the injury incidence in
hance the motivation of pupils with special PE teachers in Singapore. Clear message here–
needs to engage in PE. The context for Stepha- optimizing the workload of PE teachers can "af-
nie's study was elementary school students be- fect the quality of PE delivery and achievement
tween the ages of 9-11, and she conducted a of learning outcomes" [MUKHERJEE, S.].
SDT-based controlled trial to assess the effects
of an inclusive PE intervention across four
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018Neville: ECSS Conference Page 57
Active Educating Are such benefits maintained in the long term?
There were a number of interesting studies on Simone Ciaccioni from the Italian University of
the school setting and on the opportunity for in- Sport and Movement reported findings from a
creased MVPA within the school day. systematic review of the effects of PA on self-
Arvid Kuritz from the University of Konstanz esteem (SE) and self-concept (SC) in children
shared news of social reform in Germany– and adolescents aged 5-18. In line with previ-
namely, the introduction of all-day elementary ous research in adults, Ciaccioni reported that
schooling (half day was the norm previously). PA can lead to improvements in SE and SC
Her data may assuage concerns about the effects ("with effect sizes ranging from large to small").
of increased sedentariness, as she reported no Interestingly, the association between PA and
MVPA differences in children attending tradi- self-worth–a subcomponent of SE–appears to be
tional half-day vs new full-day school more sustainable over time than the association
[KURITZ, A.]. For a similar study, see the ab- between PA and body image–a subcomponent of
stract for Ryo Tanaka's poster presentation. Ryo SC [CIACCIONI, S.]. For evidence that PA in-
assessed on the effects of standing desks in ele- terventions aimed at improving mental health
mentary school in Japan–pupils total daily steps need to be longitudinal in nature, see a review of
increased and their subjective feelings of sleepi- meta-analyses presented by [BUDDE, H.].
ness decreased when compared with sedentary Collaborating with one of the conference
state schooling [TANAKA, R.]. chairs (Colin Boreham) from UCD, Ye Guo
Oline Anite Bjorkelund from Aalborg Univer- from Guangzhou University analyzed data from
sitet in Denmark spoke about the effect of short the Growing Up in Ireland infant cohort (chil-
classroom-based PA breaks on motivation to dren aged 5). Disconcertingly, Ye reported that,
learn in primary school students and their well- by age 5, approximately half of the cohort stud-
being. Simple messages here: non-didactic ied were never active in sport (47%). Ye's main
forms of teaching can be fun and can provide en- analyses revealed that participation in orga-
vironmental conditions in the classroom that are nized sport of an hour or more a week is associ-
beneficial for learning. Disappointing that there ated with a moderate reduction in psychologi-
were no data reported in the abstract cal difficulties–though the extent of this associ-
[BJORKELUND, O.A.]. For a similar message, ation appears to be diminished by lower socio-
see the poster from Peggy Cheung. A simple economic status (SES) [GUO, Y.]. Further stud-
study, but clear outcome: children are more ac- ies on the extent to which the physical benefits
tive when their teachers are more active of PA proffered across ECSS are moderated by
[CHEUNG, P.P]. SES and related household factors are clearly in-
A specific form of break for PA advocated in dicated here.
the UK and Ireland is The Daily Mile: a 15- min Acknowledgements: Thanks to ECSS and host organizing
break from the classroom for children to engage committee and chairs for waiving the registration fee.
in additional running or jogging outside. Mandy Thanks to the reviewer for her suggestions and encourage-
Gault from the University of Chichester, addi- ment.
tion of the Daily Mile over two terms (26 weeks) Published August 2018 ©2018
produced limited physical benefits for 9- to 10-
year old school children. Additional assess-
ment of the cognitive and social-emotive effects
of the daily mile would have been in keeping
with the broader PE literature [GAULT, M.]. For
a related line of research in the UK and Ireland,
see [CARLIN, A.].
Mental Health
The focus on PE and school sports at ECSS
was very much on physical benefits. I would like
to conclude this report by drawing readers' atten-
tion to two studies focused on psycho-social and
emotive outcomes.
Sportscience 22, 52-57, 2018You can also read
