Middle School Physical Activity Intervention for Girls

The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of and obtain preliminary evidence of efficacy for a 6-month "Girls on the Move" intervention (guided by the Health Promotion Model and Social Cognitive Theory). The intervention involves motivational, individually tailored counseling plus after-school physical activity (PA) to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and cardiovascular (CV) fitness, as well as improve body composition and cognition and affective responses related to MVPA among 6th-grade girls. Specifically, it consists of a 90-minute after-school PA Club that includes MVPA and 6 one-on-one monthly motivational, individually tailored counseling sessions with a registered (school) nurse during the school day to support each girl's continued MVPA. Applying the motivational interviewing communication style, the school nurse will individually tailor the counseling based upon each girl's key responses gleaned from computerized questionnaires assessing cognitive and affective variables related to MVPA. One middle school will be randomly assigned to receive the intervention and another to serve as attention control.