Health Policy, Socioeconomic Status, and Student Recognition for Fitness Achievements

Purpose: Schools with high proportions of disadvantaged students frequently do not have as many resources to support student learning and health promotion initiatives. Programs such as the Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP) offer schools the opportunity to improve student fitness and provide awards for student achievements. In addition to such programming, health policies may be a way to overcome existing limitations in school resources. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between school health policy, socioeconomic status, and recognition of student fitness.

Methods: Educators from 338 schools representing 174 different school districts across the United States provided PYFP implementation data. Specifically, data were extracted from the schools’ funding application and end-of year-survey, which contained questions about school demographics, school health policies, and program implementation. In addition, student fitness data were collected using the FitnessGram® protocols.

Results:  Schools that administered the FitnessGram® were significantly more likely to recognize students (p<.05).  Among those schools that provided awards to students for achievements in fitness, 72% were elementary schools (enrollment M=453, SD=213), 24.8% were middle and high schools (enrollment M=678, SD=401), and 3.2% were K-12 (enrollment M=1,078, SD=613). Schools that had a higher percent of students who were eligible for free lunch (p<.05) and had a higher student enrollment (p<.001) were less likely to provide recognition. Results from a logistic regression analysis indicated that after controlling for school type, school enrollment, and percent of free and reduced lunch, whether the schools administered FitnessGram®, but not school health policy, was associated with an increased likelihood of providing awards (OR = 4.86, p<.05).

Conclusions: This study found that schools that had lower SES and higher enrollment provided fewer awards than more advantaged schools. The presence of a school health policy was not enough to overcome limitations associated with SES and school enrollment. These findings suggest that funding opportunities, such as PYFP, consider providing additional funding and targeted technical support to larger, disadvantaged schools to ensure that these schools gain access to necessary resources and maximize the program’s impact.