Children's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity in Classes Taught by Specialist Versus Nonspecialist P.E. Teachers

The purpose of the study was to determine if there were differences in attitudes toward physical activity for children in classes taught by specialists versus those taught by nonspecialists. Fourthand fifth-grade children (N=414) from four schools participated in the study. Two schools had P.E. specialists teaching the P.E. classes while the other two schools had classroom teachers teaching the classes. Attitudes were assessed by employing the Children's Attitude Toward Physical Activity (CATPA) inventory (Simon & Smoll, 1974). Although discriminant function analysis resulted in a significant difference between the attitudes of both groups of children, only 57.48% of the cases were correctly classified. These results suggest that teachers play a minimal role in children's attitudes toward physical activity. It was recommended that additional studies be conducted that examine and control for multiple factors influencing attitude formation.