Schools and sports governing bodies have added physical literacy in their curricula. However, until recently, there was no validated protocol to assess children’s physical literacy progress. In response to this need, the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) was developed; it measures physical literacy by assessing 4 important domains (physical competence, daily behaviours, motivation and confidence, and knowledge and understanding). The relative age effect (RAE) bias is attributable to age grouping by the imposition of cut-off dates; this age grouping strategy is common in sports and schools. However, despite its objective of providing age-adjusted learning, it promotes a relative age difference that leads to a developmental advantage for children born just after the cut-off date. Analogous to the age grouping in schools and sports, the CAPL protocol uses rounded-down age bands to objectively compare children; however, this type of comparison is also known for being susceptible to the RAE bias. The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether the RAE bias was associated with the CAPL scores (i.e., the four domains individually and the overall score) and all of the physical competence domain assessments individually (anthropometrics, aerobic, strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and movement skills). Participants (n=8,233, 50.2% girls), ages 8 to 12 years, from 7 provinces were tested using the CAPL protocol. Analyses of covariance (controlling for age, testing date, body mass index z-scores and testing sites) revealed a significant RAE bias in boys in 2 out of the 4 domains (physical competence and knowledge and understanding domains) and in girls in 3 out of the 4 domains (physical competence, knowledge and understanding and motivation and confidence domains). However, these significant associations between domain scores and relative age yielded negligible effect sizes, thus no meaningful RAE was observed. Collectively, the results of this thesis suggest that the RAE should not affect the validity of the CAPL in accurately measuring physical literacy.

The relevance of motivation has saturated many physical literacy definitions (Mandigo et al., 2006); however, the study of motivation in this context has generated minimal attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore motivation with respect to physical literacy related to self-reported variety of physical activity engagement and predilection towards physical activity. Participants included 218 male and female students in grades 4-6. Deci and Ryan’s (1985) basic needs theory guided a thematic analysis of open-ended questions from the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy. Results indicated participants’ engagement in a variety of physical activities, and predilection towards physical activity was influenced by self-reported need satisfaction. Competence related more to engagement in a wide variety of physical activities while relatedness was found to relate more to predilection towards physical activity. Children who engaged in their physical activities for fun, and health benefits on average participated in a greater variety of physical activities.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Sally J. Yahnke / Jeong-Hee Kim / This study is a narrative inquiry into the lives of physical education teachers in order to gain insight into their identities as physical education teachers and their understanding of what it means to be physically literate as well as investigate into the thoughts of physical education teachers about the concept of comprehensives school physical activity programs. According to Whitehead (2010), physical literacy is a disposition to capitalize on the human embodied capability, wherein an individual has the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for maintaining purposeful physical pursuits/activity throughout a lifetime. Development of the debate regarding physical literacy was stimulated by the study of existentialist and phenomenological philosophers, such as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, who articulate a particular stance towards the nature of our mind and body connection. Merleau-Ponty’s (1945/2010) philosophy facilitated the gain of knowledge regarding 1) how stories of physical education teachers help promote physical literacy in schools; 2) how physical education teachers perceive the mind/body connection; and 3) how physical education teachers understand what it means to be physically literate. The contributions to the thought and practice of physical education as a result of this study will highlight 1.) physical literacy is embodied in adapted physical education; 2.) the role of physical education teachers is not just teaching and moving the body, but to help students learn better; 3.) A stressed mind affects the body, and having a healthy body helps students learn better; 4.) A new role of physical education teachers is to bridge the gap between physical education and the classroom by providing ideas to classroom teachers regarding brain breaks. 5.) Teacher education programs need to highlight reflective practices that help future physical educators draw upon knowledge from their own life experiences to enrich their teaching; 6.) Physical education teachers should collaborate with public health officials to implement comprehensive school physical activity programs.

To date, only a small number of studies have examined the results of physical literacy (PL) assessments using the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL). Among these studies, none have evaluated the correlations between the four domains of PL assessed within the CAPL, nor have they evaluated whether these correlations differ depending on weight status. The current study aimed to determine the strength of associations between the four domains of PL, and compare the correlation coefficients between healthy weight and overweight/obese children. Children aged 8-12 years (n=456) were assessed using the CAPL protocol and partial correlations (controlling for age, sex, and other domain scores) were calculated between domains, for healthy weight (n=275) and overweight/obese children (n=181) separately. The results of this study show that the domains of physical competence, daily behaviour, and motivation and confidence correlate significantly with one another at similar low-to-moderate levels in both body weight groups examined (r = 0.15 to 0.38). The domain of knowledge and understanding did not correlate significantly with other domains in healthy weight participants, and only correlated significantly with physical competence in overweight/obese children (r = 0.22). Overall, the low level of correlations seen between domains in this study lends support to the psychometric architecture of the CAPL and suggests that the four domains of CAPL measure different constructs. Furthermore, the results of this study suggest that interventions aimed at improving PL in children should assess multiple domains, and do not necessarily need to be tailored based on a child’s weight status.

The relevance of motivation has saturated many physical literacy definitions (Mandigo et al., 2006); however, the study of motivation in this context has generated minimal attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore motivation with respect to physical literacy related to self-reported variety of physical activity engagement and predilection towards physical activity. Participants included 218 male and female students in grades 4-6. Deci and Ryan’s (1985) basic needs theory guided a thematic analysis of open-ended questions from the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy. Results indicated participants’ engagement in a variety of physical activities, and predilection towards physical activity was influenced by self-reported need satisfaction. Competence related more to engagement in a wide variety of physical activities while relatedness was found to relate more to predilection towards physical activity. Children who engaged in their physical activities for fun, and health benefits on average participated in a greater variety of physical activities.

This thesis is comprised of two articles, bookended an introductory chapter and a closing chapter. The first article is called “Are We Heading in the Right Direction?: An Attribute Analysis of Physical Literacy Assessment Tools” and the second one “Physical Literacy, Interactivity, and Communication: Emergent Teacher Understandings.” This is a viewpoint that analyzes what attributes of physical literacy (Whitehead, 2010; 2019), were exemplified or overlooked in three Canadian physical literacy assessment tools used by teachers, coaches, parents, and students. The analyzed tools included the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) developed by the Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group, PlayTools: Play Fun developed by Sport for Life (S4L), and Passport for Life developed by Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada. In conclusion, all three tools included assessments of Motivation, Confidence, Competence, Awareness, and Understanding. However, only Passport for Life assessed all of Whitehead’s (2019) attributes yet, not in equal amounts. The second article aimed at describing the emergent understandings of the concept of physical literacy from the perspective of new and seasoned teachers interested in PE. By means of the exploration, recollection, and description of a vivid interactive and relationally oriented pedagogical physical activity understandings of physical literacy were described. Motion-sensing phenomenological interviews with three participants were carried out to better understand what the concept of physical literacy meant in their everyday practice. Recommendations for future research were that more attention could be placed on the least developed aspects of physical literacy, bodily communication and the role it plays in forming relational connections between students and teachers.

Physical activity is associated with a host of health benefits across childhood. Despite this, most children are not engaging in enough physical activity to achieve health benefits, and there is growing evidence that lifelong physical activity habits may be established in childhood. Theories suggest that physical literacy may be associated with health benefits due to its reciprocal relationship with physical activity participation. The associations between physical literacy, physical activity and health in children remain largely unstudied. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationships between physical literacy, physical activity and health across early and middle childhood. The first study assessed the measurement properties of the Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth Tools, an assessment battery for physical literacy. We determined that this assessment had acceptable internal consistency, construct validity, and offered unique perspectives of a child’s physical literacy. We then determined that physical literacy was associated favourably with body composition, blood pressure, quality of life, and aerobic fitness in school-age children. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity mediated the associations between physical literacy and aerobic fitness. Finally, the third study observed that physical activity trajectories from preschool to school-age were associated with school-age physical literacy. These results highlight the importance of physical literacy in childhood, given its associations with physical activity and health indicators. Physical literacy was associated with favourable health indicators, supporting its position as a determinant of health. The participants in the lowest physical activity trajectory groups had the lowest physical literacy. These finds suggest that physical activity across early and middle childhood may play a formative role in the development of physical literacy. Future work should determine if these results are applicable to other age groups, such as early years or adolescents, and if changes in physical activity over time are associated with changes in physical literacy over time. / Thesis / Doctor of Science (PhD) / Kids who are active every day will be healthier that those who aren’t. Unfortunately, most Canadian kids are not active enough to be healthy. We still don’t really know why some kids are active and some kids aren’t active. We think that physical literacy might be the missing piece to help kids be more active as they grow. This thesis studied the links between physical literacy, physical activity and health in kids. We found that we could measure physical literacy well in school-age kids. We also found that physical literacy was linked to health in kids. Kids who were the most active as they grew had the highest physical literacy. We saw that boys were more active than girls as they grew. Kids should start being active as preschoolers to help develop physical literacy. We need more programs and activities for kids to be more active to help develop physical literacy.

Increasing access to and improving knowledge of rehabilitation strategies is essential to address the adverse health outcomes related to the increased prevalence of multimorbidity with our aging population. Physical literacy is emerging as a strategy to increase lifelong participation in physical activity, however, there is limited research exploring how physical literacy can support optimal aging for adults with functional decline associated with chronic conditions. This thesis investigated how to frame physical literacy for adults through a rehabilitation lens and explored outcomes related to function, mobility, and health awareness as a result of a novel physical literacy intervention. The first study was an integrative review examining what is known about physical literacy for adults. Thirteen new physical literacy constructs emerged, that differed from the current physical literacy definition and addressed the needs of aging adults. Purposeful activities, knowledge of age-related changes, and social interaction were identified as the top three. The objective of the second expert consensus study was to understand what components are required when acquiring physical literacy as an adult from the perspectives of healthcare professionals and researchers in optimal aging. The third qualitative study explored how adults with multimorbidity describe physical literacy for adults while considering barriers and facilitators associated with fluctuating health status. The findings from the preceding qualitative studies helped inform the program development of the fourth physical literacy intervention study and fostered a new rehabilitation-focused Physical Literacy framework for Adults and adults with Chronic Conditions (PLACC). A pre-post study involving 20 adults with 2 or more conditions (95% female, 59 + 6 years) participated in a 5-week multi-component, virtually delivered physical literacy group intervention. Post-intervention significant improvements were found for physical function (p=<0.001; cohen’s D=0.90), as measured by the patient specific functional scale, mobility with the 4-meter walk test at self-selected speed (p=0.03, cohen’s D=0.53) and all 3 physical literacy awareness questions (p=0.001, p=<0.001, p=0.001). The results of this program of research can inform future public health interventions, involving rehabilitation-focused physical literacy programs, designed by physiotherapists, and aimed at improving function and mobility for adults with chronic conditions. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In Ontario, almost 80% of adults over the age of 45 are living with at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or arthritis. These conditions require on-going management and can cause challenges with one’s function and mobility. Physical literacy is a term that is used commonly in schools and sports to describe the basic movement skills that children need to be active for life. It is unknown how physical literacy can help support adults with chronic conditions to improve their overall health. This thesis explored how physical literacy could improve function and mobility for adults and older adults with chronic conditions. The first study examined all the existing literature on adults and physical literacy. The second and third studies asked physiotherapy researchers and adults with chronic conditions what physical literacy means to them. The results of these studies found that there are different skills needed to become physically literate as an adult than what is needed to become a physically literate child. A new physical literacy model for adults was developed that guided an intervention study for adults with chronic conditions. Results of this intervention study found that a 5-week education program delivered virtually by a registered physiotherapist could improve adults’ awareness of what physical literacy is, improve function and mobility outcomes and positively impact behaviours. The results of this thesis have provided a new way of thinking about physical literacy for adults and older adults. Physical literacy for adults involves self-monitoring movement, having knowledge of age-related changes, participating in meaningful, safe, and social movement activities, and understanding the benefits of physical activity for the management of chronic conditions.

Övervikt har ökat världen över och anses vara ett hot mot folkhälsan som kan leda till långvarig sjuklighet och psykisk ohälsa. Rekommendationerna för barn och unga är 60 minuter per dag och fokus bör ligga på fysiska aktiviteter som upplevs meningsfulla. För att lyckas främja fysisk aktivitet och motverka övervikt är det viktigt att kombinera pedagogiskt stöd med fysisk aktivitet. Studien syftade till att belysa hur aktivitetsledare inom kommunala hälsoprojekt, arbetar med att främja fysisk aktivitet för barn och ungdomar med övervikt. Studiens teoretiska inriktning är en kombination av hälsa och pedagogik bestående av salutogenes, känsla av sammanhang, physical literacy och pedagogiskt ledarskap. Studiens vetenskapsteoretiska utgångspunkt är socialkonstruktivistisk med deskriptiv design, där kvalitativt material insamlats genom sex intervjuer med aktivitetsledare för barn och ungdomar med övervikt. Empirin har analyserats genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som resulterade i två huvudkategorier: Meningsfulla aktiviteter - aktivitetsledarna uttryckte att fokus på tävlingsmomenten skulle frångås i största möjliga utsträckning och Pedagogiskt ledarskap - aktivitetsledarna framhävde vikten av att uppmärksamma alla deltagare och anpassa aktiviteter efter individuell rörelseförmåga. Resultatet tydde på att anpassade aktiviteter för målgruppen, tillsammans med meningsfullhet, glädje samt att aktivitetsledarna har ett genuint intresse för ungdomarna är avgörande. Slutsatsen kan eventuellt vara att alla människor är olika och det finns inte en specifik regel för hur varje individ ska bemötas. En förutsättning för ett bra pedagogiskt ledarskap är att vara lyhörd, visa intresse och vara omtänksam. / Obesity has increased worldwide and is considered a threat against the public health. It can cause diseases and mental illness in the long term. Sixty minutes of daily physical activity is recommended, preferably one that’s perceived as meaningful for the child. In order to promote physical activity and counteract obesity, it’s essential to combine pedagogic support together with physical activity. The study's purpose is to highlight how leaders in municipal health projects work to promote physical activity for obese children. The theoretical orientation of the study is a combination of health and pedagogy consisting of salutogenesis, sense of coherence, physical literacy and pedagogic leadership. The science theoretical orientation is social constructivist with descriptive design. Qualitative material has been collected through six interviews with leaders for children with obesity. The interviews has been analyzed through a qualitative content analysis which resulted in two main categories: Meaningful activity - the leaders expressed that the feeling of competition should be shifted as far as possible. Instead they highlighted the importance of pedagogic leadership and to notice all participants and adjust the activity to every individual’s capacity. The result indicated that adjusted activity for the target group, together with meaningfulness, joy and genuine interest from the leaders are crucial for the children. The conclusion may be that there’s no specific rule for how each individual should be treated. A prerequisite for a great pedagogic leadership is to be responsive, show interest and be caring.

Background: Physical literacy has been adopted in PE, sport and recreation to develop active participation in Canada. Physical literacy (PL) is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life (IPLA 2015). There are three proposed domains (physical, psychological, and behavioural) for PL. Little is known about PL in children and youth. Aims: Aim 1: To characterize PL in children and youth, and to relate PL to health related fitness, performance and physical activity. Aim 2: To evaluate a PL intervention (Run Jump Throw) in grade 3/4 PE. Methods: Design: Cross-sectional (n=299, grades 3, 4, 8 and 12) and quasi-experimental intervention (n=199, 4 intervention, 4 matched comparison schools, Grade 3/4, Run Jump Throw Intervention). Instruments: Physical Literacy Assessment of Youth tools (PLAY Fun, PLAY Self, PLAY Inventory), BMI, waist circumference (WC), 20 meter shuttle run (CVFIT), sprint speed (SPEED), accelerometer measured physical activity (PA), Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) and the Motivation to Physical Activity Measure (MPAM). Results: Motor competence increased with grade (p<0.01). Substantial gaps (3.4% object control) in motor competence between males and females (M>F, P<0.01) identified in grade 4, the gap widens with grade (16.6% by grade 12). Motor competence was correlated (p<0.01) to -0.29 WC, -0.48 BMI, 0.54 PA, 0.56 CVFIT, 0.86 SPEED, 0.23 MPAM, and 0.5 PSDQ. The affective/cognitive domain of PLAY Self was correlated to (p<0.01) to -0.22 BMI, 0.33 PA, 0.42 PLAY Inventory, 0.46 CVFIT, 0.45 SPEED, 0.44 MPAM, and 0.79 PSDQ. Moderate associations were observed between physical and psychological domains of physical literacy. PLAY Self demonstrated convergent validity with PSDQ and MPAM. The Run Jump Throw intervention improved motor competence (5.5%, p<0.01), and was greater than comparison schools (3.5%, p<0.05). Conclusion: Physical literacy shows appropriate linkages to health related outcomes in two key domains, physical and psychological. The gender gap in physical literacy is alarming, and requires studies for remediation. These results support the notion that PL may be a gateway to physical activity in youth, and that PL can be enhanced by means of quality PL enriched lesson plans in schools. / February 2017