Effects of an active recess program on the school coexistence of elementary school students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v72.114577Keywords:
School coexistence, Physical Education, active recess, school violence, basic educationAbstract
Introduction: Students spend most of their time at school, and there are no educational policies that promote active breaks to improve social well-being and school coexistence.
Objective: To identify the effects of an active recess programme led by physical education teachers on school coexistence. Methodology: Quasi-experimental study with a quantitative approach. The sample consisted of 26 fourth-grade primary school students (14 girls and 12 boys, aged 9.7 ± 0.5 years) from a school in Chile. The School Coexistence for Non-Violence Questionnaire (CENVI) was administered before and after the intervention. The intervention lasted 12 weeks, was implemented during school recesses, and consisted of collaborative games led by the physical education teacher. Results: The intervention programme had positive effects on verbal violence (PRE= 2.10 +- 0.301; POST= 1.61 +- 0.444; p<0.001; n2p: 0.297), physical behavioural violence (PRE= 2.01 +- 0.692; POST= 1.57 +- 0.486; p<0.001; n2p: 0.125), social violence-exclusion (PRE= 1.96 +- 0.615; POST= 1.54 +- 0.444; p<0.001; n2p: 0.141), technological violence (PRE= 1.48 +- 0.726; POST= 1.20 +- 0.373; p<0.023; n2p: 0.048). No positive effects were found in the other dimensions. Discussion: The results obtained confirm that this intervention had a positive impact on several dimensions of school coexistence.
Conclusion: The results suggest that the implementation of this programme may have contributed to reducing manifestations of verbal, physical and social violence in the group of students evaluated. Given the small sample size and its application in a particular context, these findings should be interpreted with caution. However, the study provides an initial basis that could guide future, more extensive research exploring the potential of physical education as a strategy to support the improvement of school coexistence.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Rodrigo Yáñez-Sepúlveda, Paul Fresard-Lilllo, Fernando Alvarado-Reyes, Claudio Hinojosa-Torres, Juan Pablo Zavala-Crichton, Guillermo Cortés-Roco, Jorge Olivares-Arancibia, Tomás Reyes-Amigo
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