Abstract
Background: Physical literacy is assumed to be important for the development of youth physical activity. However, empirical evidence about this construct is limited. For instance, clear articulations about the beliefs of professionals working with physical literacy are needed. This study presents findings from an evaluation of a provincial physical literacy mentorship program, the Physical Literacy in Residence (PLR) project. Method: A cross-sectional case-control quasi-experimental design was employed. The PLR project was implemented in 103 schools across Alberta during the 2017/2018 school year. The sample for analysis included 93 educators from 28 PLR schools and 67 educators from 9 control schools. The short form of the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale was modified for physical literacy. A set of 12 physical literacy outcome expectations in relation to likelihood, value, and temporal proximity were measured. Null modeling was conducted to examine effects of shared group variance for the purpose of guiding further analyses. Results: High intraclass correlation coefficients indicated clustered variance structures. Therefore, multiple regressions, controlling for clustered variance, were performed using Mplus 8 software. Outcome expectations were found to have strong relationships with self-efficacy among both the control educators, R2 = .23, p < .05 and intervention educators, R2 = .28, p < .001. But, the likelihood of the outcome expectations only added significantly to the model in the intervention group, p < .01. Conclusion: Outcome expectations and self-efficacy of teachers for fostering physical literacy are closely linked; however, the PLR intervention resulted in educators believing these outcomes are more likely to occur.Acknowledgments: This work was funded through the Mitacs Accelerate program in partnership with Ever Active Schools.