Abstract
In Canada, 7% of youth are reaching recommended levels of physical activity (PA; AHKC, 2011). One way PA can be promoted is through government mandated school policy legislation (Schmid et al., 2006). The current study is a review that examines the evaluation of school-based PA policies for youth over the past 10 years. Articles included had to meet the following criteria: be an original research study published in an academic journal in English, examine or be related to PA behaviour, apply to a youth population in school setting, highlight a law, bill or policy reflective of PA based on government initiatives, and involve the evaluation of this legislated policy. After searching five databases, PubMed (625 hits), Medline (184 hits), PsycInfo (23 hits), CINAHL (107 hits), and Sport Discus (571 hits), 12 articles were selected for inclusion. All policies came from the United States; 7 highlighted the federal Children Reauthorization Act and 5 highlighted state level policies for safe routes to schools, PA only initiatives, or PA and other initiatives (e.g., nutrition). Eight articles evaluated policy implementation, 3 examined policy implementation and impact, and 1 article considered only policy impact. Although at least 162 bills have been enacted recently in the U.S. related directly to physical education (Eyler et al., 2010), few policies are evaluated for their actual impact in the academic literature. Implications for policy makers and researchers will be discussed.
