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Health‐related Fitness in First Through Fourth Grade Students

The purpose of this study was to profile the health-related fitness of first through fourth grade students. Five public schools were randomly selected to represent each of five geographic regions of Massachusetts. Three hundred forty-eight boys and girls participated as subjects. In each school, one home room class from each grade level was randomly selected. A team of five experienced teachers/researchers collected the data. The Physical Best fitness assessment program, developed by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Eduction, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD), was utilized to assess the health-related fitness of students. Test items included measures of body composition by skinfold thickness, cardiovascular fitness by a one mile run/walk, flexibility of the hamstrings by the sit- and-reach test and muscular strength and endurance of the upper body and abdominals by pull-ups and modified sit- ups, respectively. Means, standard deviations and percentages were calculated by class and grade level. The results indicated that the students performed best on the test of hamstring flexibility (75 percent met the criteria) and worst in cardiovascular fitness (25 percent met the criteria). When analyzed by gender, the boys scored best on body composition (69 percent met criteria) and the sit-up (68 percent) while scoring the lowest (22 percent) on the cardiovascular assessment. The girls scored best on hamstring flexibility (88percent), the sit-up (79 percent) and body composition (71 percent), while scoring the lowest on cardiovascular assessment (28 percent) and the pull-up (19 percent). No individual class mean for either gender met the health-related criterion reference standard for the mile run. A total of 12 percent of the students achieved scores that met five of the proposed health-related criteria.