The Effects of a School-Based Physical Activity Teacher Intervention on the Physical Activity Attitudes and Practices of Adolescent Students in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: Nigerian adolescents are faced with challenges around physical inactivity. Poor attitudes to, and practices in, physical activity during school physical education (PE) classes are also a challenge. Our study integrated an innovative PE teaching methodology (autonomous support style) into a professional development training (PDT) programme for teachers to promote PA among adolescents. The study aimed at determining the effects of this school-based physical activity intervention for teachers on the physical activity attitudes and practices of adolescents. This study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach to determine the attitudes and practices of adolescents. One thousand two hundred students were recruited from twenty-four junior secondary schoolsthrough an intact group design process. A PE teacher from each school was included in the PDT intervention programme. The main components of the intervention included training PE teachers to influence their students’ attitudes and practices through the use of an autonomous support style of teaching.PE teachers allocated to the intervention group implemented the autonomous support style of teaching at the schools in the intervention group for four months. There was a pre-intervention baseline assessment of the students’ physical activity attitudes and practices, with a second assessment following the intervention. Results showed that there were significant (p<0.05) changes, post-intervention, in the adolescents’ attitudes to, and practices in, physical activity participation during PE classes, and at lunch or break-time during the school day.