Active Games: Increasing the Attractiveness of Active Video Game Play for Youth
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Child
- Sponsor
- USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
- Enrollment
- 49
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in relative reinforcing value (RRV) of active video games
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- last year
Overview
Brief Summary
The purpose of this study is to look at the effects of active video game play on youth physical activity.
Detailed Description
Child obesity is increasing worldwide and has major implications for health, both during youth and later in life. Physical activity declines sharply during adolescence, making ages 8-12 a critical period to encourage healthy exercise habits. Increased childhood weight has been linked to sedentary leisure time activities, such as video games. "Active video games" (AVGs) are now being studied as a method to increase children's interest and participation in physical activity. Although research indicates that AVG play may lead to energy expenditure comparable to light/ moderate physical activity, children prefer sedentary video games to AVGs and often find AVGs boring. Children do not play AVGs as often or with the same intensity as traditional games/sports and lose interest in them; efforts must be made to increase the appeal of AVGs so they are competitive with sedentary video games. This study will examine whether children's motivation to engage in AVG play may be increased with greater autonomy, as well as whether increasing children's motivation to play AVGs also increases their motivation to play sedentary video games.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Sedentary lifestyle
- •BMI between 5th and 95th percentile
Exclusion Criteria
- •taking any medications that affect energy use or eating
- •actively trying to lose weight
- •has any medical conditions that prevent him/her from safely joining in physical activity
- •exercises more than three times per week for one hour at a time
- •does not engage in more than 14 hours per week of screen-based activities
- •does not own an active video game system
- •plays active video games more than 30 minutes per week
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in relative reinforcing value (RRV) of active video games
Time Frame: Week 0, Week 6, Week 10
RRV of active video games will be assessed by evaluating the number of responses (mouse button presses) a participant is willing to complete to gain access to active video game play or an alternative (sedentary video game or traditional active play).
Secondary Outcomes
- Change in minutes of physical activity, as assessed by activity tracker(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Children's intrinsic, external, interrogated, identified, introjected and amotivation for physical activity(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Children's intrinsic, external, interrogated, identified, introjected and amotivation for active video game play(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Beverage and snack food consumption(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Children's intrinsic, external, interrogated, identified, introjected and amotivation for sedentary video game play(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Children's exercise self-efficacy(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)
- Change in minutes spent in traditional active play, active and sedentary video game play, and other sedentary screen-based activities(Week 0, Week 6, Week 10)