Exergaming and health message framing on physical activity beliefs

Can Exergames Impart Health Messages? Game Play, Framing and Drivers of Physical Activity among Children

Dr. May O. Lwin & Shelly MalikWee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information

The International Communication Association’s 2011 Virtual Conference

Introduction

• Children and adolescents were likely to be found insufficiently active (Lee & Trost, 2006; Nader, Bradley, Houts, McRitchie, & O’Brien, 2008).

• Decline in the amount of physical activity played a role in the prevalence of obesity (Steinbeck, 2001).

• Communication messages have been used in campaigns or individually in battling obesity-related behaviour.

• Exergaming has recently been seen as an effective intervention to encourage physical activity (e.g., White, Kilding, & Schofield, 2009).

Objective

To examine the impact of these interventions …

a) exergaming, specifically playing Wii active video games,

and

b) PMT (Protection Motivation Theory) - based health message

… on the various antecedents of physical activity intention and

behaviour among grade 5 children in Singapore.

Research Questions

• Among those in the different experimental conditions, which condition will elicit more favorable physical activity beliefs, as measured in the children’s levels of a) attitudes, b) self-efficacy, c) perceived control over behaviour (PCB), d) subjective norm, e) group norm, and f) intention?

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

Research Questions

• Among those in the different experimental conditions, which condition will elicit more favorable physical activity beliefs, as measured in the children’s levels of a) attitudes, b) self-efficacy, c) perceived control over behaviour (PCB), d) subjective norm, e) group norm, and f) intention?

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

Research Questions

• Among those in the different experimental conditions, which condition will elicit more favorable physical activity beliefs, as measured in the children’s levels of a) attitudes, b) self-efficacy, c) perceived control over behaviour (PCB), d) subjective norm, e) group norm, and f) intention?

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3a

Research Questions

• Among those in the different experimental conditions, which condition will elicit more favorable physical activity beliefs, as measured in the children’s levels of a) attitudes, b) self-efficacy, c) perceived control over behaviour (PCB), d) subjective norm, e) group norm, and f) intention?

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3a RQ3b

• Six-weeks experiment employing a 2 x 2 between-subject factorial design.

• Paper and pen survey consisting of well-established measures was implemented at the end of the experiment to 454 students.– Mean age = 10.2 years-old– 58.2% males– 59.8% Chinese, 22.2% Malay, 11.3%

Indian, 6.7% other races

Study Design

Results

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

Not significant for all DVs

• Interaction effects between Wii and health education message:• Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, and PCB. • Marginally significant for group norm. • Not significant for subjective norm and intention.

• Simple effects tests are as follows:

Results

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

Not significant for all DVs

Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, PCB,

and group norm

• Interaction effects between Wii and health education message:• Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, and PCB. • Marginally significant for group norm. • Not significant for subjective norm and intention.

• Simple effects tests are as follows:

Results

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3a

Not significant for all DVs

Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, PCB,

and group norm

Not significant for all DVs

• Interaction effects between Wii and health education message:• Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, and PCB. • Marginally significant for group norm. • Not significant for subjective norm and intention.

• Simple effects tests are as follows:

Results

Exergaming

Health message

PE lesson with Wii

PE lesson without Wii

Coping Condition 1 Condition 2

Threat Condition 3 Condition 4

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3a RQ3b

Not significant for all DVs

Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, PCB,

and group norm

Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy & PCB

Not significant for all DVs

• Interaction effects between Wii and health education message:• Significant for attitudes, self-efficacy, and PCB. • Marginally significant for group norm. • Not significant for subjective norm and intention.

• Simple effects tests are as follows:

Results - Graph

Discussion

• The effect of exergaming is more pronounced when threat-framed message was deployed over coping-framed message.

• Incorporating exergames into the PE curriculum may promote children’s physical activity beliefs to equal levels regardless of which health message framing they were exposed to.

– Playing Wii active games could contribute to developing the children’s confidence which may lead to more positive self-efficacy, attitude, and PCB toward physical activity.

– The multiplayer and group play function of the Wii games could have played a role in the development of social bonds and relationships, and therefore, enhancing the level of group norm.

• The study affirms past findings that coping-framed health message was more effective than threat-framed message.

Implications

• Schools could incorporate exergaming into their PE programs to enhance students’ beliefs toward physical activity. Schools can also hold exergaming competition and link the types of sports to the types of exergames played.

• Parents can consider utilizing digital games that involve physical interaction to substitute more sedentary activities. Exergames could also provide an alternative for in-door physical activity in places with extreme weathers.

• Health messages related to physical activity should be communicated in coping frames instead of threat frames.

END