Individual and school level correlates of moderate to vigorous physical activity among school-children in Germany – a multi-level analysis

Fabian Czerwinski, Emily Finne, Petra Kolip, Jens Bucksch, the HBSC Study Group Germany

Young people spend half of their days in school, but evidence concerning the influence of school environment on the physical activity (PA) of pupils is still inconsistent. A better understanding of potential correlates of PA on the school-level and their possible interaction with individual aspects is needed to improve the development of more effective interventions. We used data from the 2009/10 German Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC)-sample (n=5,005 students aged 11-15 years) including self-reported moderate to vigorous intensity PA as well as a variety of biological, demographic and behavioral correlates and matched them with school-level data from the national school principals' HBSC questionnaire. We analyzed the associations of individual- and school-level correlates with MVPA by gender-specific multi-level regression. Only a small share of the overall variation in student's PA was attributable to the school-level. Consequently, the associations of individual-level correlates with PA were stronger than those of the school-level. Our analysis revealed significant associations of individual-level (i.e. age, consumption of softdrinks, overweight) as well as school-level correlates (i.e. the availability of a football ground and a swimming pool) with MVPA. We also observed some gender-specific findings especially for the school level correlates. Cross-level interactions between individual- and school-level were not apparent. Our findings indicate the usefulness of applying an ecological framework to understand and explain complex health behaviors like PA. As we found gender-specific association it might be important to acknowledge that boys and girls have specific needs to be more physically active. Further research should also take other features/elements of the school environment and neighborhood as well as socio-cognitive correlates into account to advance the field.