Research Brief: Physical Activity Trends Among Incarcerated Youth During a Sport Leadership Program

Examining body mass index and health-related fitness marker progression of incarcerated minority youth engaged in a sport-leadership program

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a sport-leadership program on minority incarcerated young adults' health-related fitness markers.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This study occurred at an all-male juvenile detention center. A total of 41 participants in this study were obtained from a sample of 103 incarcerated young adults. Data collection entailed body mass index (BMI) evaluation, cardiovascular endurance tests and 1-min pushups and situps at two different time periods (before and after three months). A 2 × 2 mixed factorial analysis of variances was used to test for differences among the within subjects' factors (time [pre × post]) and between subjects' factors (groups [flex × control]) for the above-mentioned dependent variables.

FINDINGS

Over the course of three consecutive months of engagement, preliminary indications demonstrated participants had a slight reduction in BMI and significant increases in cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength. Contrarily, during this same time period, non-participating young adults exhibited significant increases in BMI and decreases in cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

Integration of sport-leadership programs is generally not free but can be a low-cost alternative for combatting many issues surrounding physical activity, weight gain and recreational time for those incarcerated.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Behavior Modification Strategies on Physical Activity Levels Among Incarcerated Youth

This study examined the impact of prompting only and prompting combined with independent group-oriented contingency on incarcerated adolescent males' physical activity level during a sport-leadership program. An alternating treatment design was employed to allow for the evaluation among multiple treatment conditions. The study occurred during 35 consecutive sport programming lessons at a juvenile correctional facility. Participants were 16 adolescent males (Mage = 18.79). Two behavior modification strategies, prompting only and prompting combined with independent group-oriented contingency, were employed. Data were plotted graphically so visual analysis could be determined in order to explore any functional associations between the treatment conditions (e.g., interventions) and target behavior (e.g., step count). Prompting only slightly increased physical activity, whereas prompting in conjunction with independent group-oriented contingency elevated activity levels by 36%, with a smaller standard deviation indicating that all participants were equivalently physically active. The results of this study underpin the expansive benefits of sport-leadership programming, not just in similar programs' ability to develop life skill integration, positively impact life during incarceration, improve attitudes, and promote physical activity, but also to provide elevated opportunities for youth to be physically active.

Exploring physical activity trends and lesson context of incarcerated youth in a sport-leadership program

Incarcerated youth are one subset of the population in dire need of physical activity interventions. As inactivity within incarcerated populations has become a mounting public health concern, several sport-based physical activity and fitness programs within prisons have emerged. The purpose of this study is to explore physical activity levels and lesson context of a sport-leadership program in one juvenile detention center. Participants in this study were 27 incarcerated males (Mage = 19.3), imprisoned in one juvenile detention center. Participants participated in 20, 40-min sport-leadership lessons over the course of 3 months. Each lesson was live coded using the System for Observing Instructional Time (SOFIT) to examine physical activity levels and lesson context. Over the course of 20 lessons, participants engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for 61% of lesson time (24.5 min). Further, over 23% of lesson time was spent vigorously (9.5 min). Specific to lesson context, 18% of total lesson time (7.5 min) was spent in management whereas 7.96% (3.1 min) was consumed by knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, a vast majority of each session (70%) was spent in gameplay (28.04 min). This study is the first to adopt the SOFIT systematic observation instrument to evaluate and quantify MVPA and lesson context during a sport-leadership program within a juvenile detention center. Results from this study indicate incarcerated youth who participated in this program engaged in MVPA for more than 60% of lesson time. It was reported that overall MVPA of participants within programming slightly decreased across the 20 total lessons.