Differential influence of gender on the effectiveness of structured physical education on health-related physical fitness of elementary school students

Abstract

The study aims to find out the differential influence of gender on the effectiveness of a Structured Physical Education Programme (SPEP) on health-related physical fitness (Cardiorespiratory endurance, Muscular strength, Muscular endurance, Flexibility, and Body composition) of elementary school students of Kerala. The pre-test post-test control group design was employed to test a single null hypothesis by collecting data from 171 elementary school children (age range 10-12 years) from six intact classes, two each from fifth, sixth and seventh grade levels. The participants were separated into control groups and experimental groups, comprised of children from different grade levels. The groups were pretested for the five health-related physical fitness components by employing standard methods. The gain scores obtained by subtracting the pre-test scores from the post-test scores for the gender-based sub-samples were compared by employing the independent sample t-test and two-tailed test of significance for two independent proportions to test the null hypothesis. The analyses exposed that gender exert a significant differential influence on the effectiveness of the SPEP in improving cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular flexibility and body composition of elementary school students. However, gender is not a significant factor that differentiate elementary school students on the basis of the success of the SPEP in enhancing the muscular strength of the students.