Physical Activity in Girl Scout Junior Troop Meetings – Part 4

In our study, physical activity discouragement was more common among troop leaders than physical activity promotion. For example, observations of troop leaders telling the girls to sit down, settle down, and not to run were recorded by our research assistants. Troop leaders offered no verbal or physical promotion (modeling) of physical activity. A possible explanation for the paucity of opportunity and encouragement for physical activity, as noted by Trost and colleagues (2008), is that adult leaders of these programs may be limited in physical activity instructional skills and/or confidence to lead girls in physical activities. Troop leaders may have real or perceived barriers for physical activity.
These barriers may include: time constraints, the perception of not having the equipment or space for physical activity; troop leaders may not see physical activity as a mission or purpose of Girl Scouts, or perhaps leaders rank maintaining order above movement. Interventions aimed at getting leaders to offer more opportunities for MVPA and to reduce opportunities for sedentary behavior may be appropriate. To do this, leaders may need to be trained and equipped to implement enjoyable physical activity recreational opportunities, and the associated barriers to more active meetings may need to be identified and reduced.
The results of the present study should be interpreted with consideration of the following limitations. The sample of 42 scouts in four troops is likely not representative of the approximate 3.7 million Girl Scouts and thousands of troops in the U.S.A, but may be representative of other Junior troops in the region. Additionally, our sample was predominantly Caucasian from mid-sized towns, so findings among the observed troops may not generalize to other Girl Scout troops of varying age, diverse ethnic and racial make-up, and troops located in more rural or urban areas. Also, accelerometer-based monitors were used to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviors, and such devices do not provide information on the specific modalities of physical activity, or even sedentary behaviors performed.
Opposite these limitations were a number of strengths. Stringent accelerometer procedures were used to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Accelerometer data was screened for adequate wear time and the length of attendance of each girl was recorded. Accelerometry was linked to an observation system, which recorded the start, transition of, and end of all sessions. Each troop was measured on seven different occasions totaling up to 28 monitoring days. Assessment was completed over a six-month period (October to March), which accounted for seasonal changes, except summer. Objective measures of child overweight and troop meeting environment further strengthened the study.
We examined only one of the six Girl Scout levels (Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior, and Amabassador). The limitations of our study emphasize that it may be beneficial to replicate the present findings in larger samples, and to examine the physical activity and inactivity of the various Girl Scout levels in populations that are culturally and geographically diverse. Future studies that investigate these variables across populations will illuminate the degree to which troop meetings are physically active, and provide insight into leader behavior in Girl Scouts as an influence on attending girls with respect to physical activity and obesity. Using this information, potential intervention strategies can be addressed to combat obesity and inactivity in young girls.
In conclusion, these findings show that girls and troop leaders did not take advantage of a potential opportunity to do enjoyable physical activities in the absence of boys. Instead, troop leaders provided opportunities catering to more sedentary pursuits. Based on the current study, there appears to be a gap between the Girl Scout Organization’s stated health promotion focus and their actual practice in these four troops. The present study’s findings suggest that these troop leaders could do much more to promote physical activity and discourage sedentary behaviors. Girls missed out on potential opportunities to achieve more than just two minutes of MVPA toward the recommendation of 60 minutes daily (Strong et al., 2005), and interventions providing opportunities for enjoyable physical activities specifically catering to the needs and interests of girls are warranted. A practical approach to increase MVPA levels in Girl Scout troop meetings would be to add more active components to troop meetings and to promote activity within those sessions. Active components could range from sports or free-play outside to dancing or stationary games (e.g., Simon Says) inside. To support their stated health promotion emphasis, the Girl Scout Organization, or another partner organization, may need to provide a system of health promotion training to troop leaders at the local, council, or national levels.