Abstract
This study aimed (1) to describe the experience of adolescents and adults using FitSpirit asynchronous virtual (V) exercise videos that target adolescent girls, (2) to compare physical activity (PA) levels and exercise-related self-perception variables among groups (2019 in-person [IP], 2021 IP, and 2021 V) of adolescent girls, and (3) to assess the association between the adolescents’ PA levels and their exercise-related self-perception in response to IP (pre-pandemic and during pandemic) and V (during pandemic) FitSpirit exercise modes. Regarding the first aim, 28 adolescent girls ([15.5 ± 0.8] years old) and 29 adult women ([33.0 ± 10.3] years old) experienced the V exercise mode. For the second and third aims, 376 girls ([15.3 ± 1.7] years old) participated IP in 2019 (pre-pandemic), 339 girls ([14.9 ± 1.6] years old) participated IP in 2021 (during the pandemic), and 27 girls ([15.5 ± 0.8] years old) watched V FitSpirit exercise videos in 2021 (during the pandemic). Data was collected using online questionnaires. Chi-square (χ2) and Pearson tests were performed. Adults (76%) had a significantly higher intention to use FitSpirit exercise videos again than adolescents (14%) (p < 0.001). For IP exercise mode, we observed significant correlations between PA levels and being proud (r = 0.08, p = 0.046), feeling good (r = 0.14, p < 0.001), and being disappointed (r = −0.12, p < 0.001). For the V exercise mode, there were no significant correlations. In conclusion, better exercise-related self-perception was only correlated to PA levels when IP training was offered. These first findings support IP training for adolescent girls when the pandemic situation allows it.
Keywords: FitSpirit, Health promotion, Physical activity
Abbreviations
- physical activity
PA
- in-person
IP
- virtual
V
- coronavirus disease of 2019
COVID-19
- chi-square
χ 2
- analysis of variance
ANOVA
- number
n
- Mean
M
- Standard deviation
SD
- Sum of Squares
SS
- degree of freedom
df
- Eta Square
ES
- Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
SPSS
1. Introduction
A maximum health alert started for all individuals in March 2020, when the World Health Organization found that COVID-19 (an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) had reached a pandemic status.1 Since then, people have mostly stayed home far from everyday activities. Although adolescents are less vulnerable to COVID-19,2 the side effects of the pandemic can be noxious. As adolescents are in a critical period of development, they could be more in peril than others to the psychosocial effects of pandemics.3 Among various psychological and developmental factors, self-perception, defined as an individual's evaluation of the good or worth in his or her self-description,4 is one of the most critical indicators for the development of adolescents.5 Also, physical activity (PA) is associated with improved self-perceptions, including better self-esteem, self-efficacy, and body-related perceptions.6,7
There is an increasing interest in the association between self-perception and PA.8,9 Recent studies have shown that self-perception is positively associated with moderate and vigorous PA in adolescents.10,11 Despite the known benefits of participating in PA, Canadian adolescents are less involved with PA programs each passing year, and participation rates decrease into adulthood.12 Some studies showed an additional decline in adolescents' PA levels during the pandemic.13, 14, 15 A change also occurred in the training modality, with people using tele-exercise more than before to try and maintain their PA levels.16,17 Accordingly, there is a need to study in-person (IP) and virtual (V) exercises and their effects on individuals' self-perception.
FitSpirit is a well-known Canadian non-profit organization that aims to promote PA and increase motivation for an active lifestyle among adolescent girls in schools.18 Recent studies found encouraging outcomes regarding motivational results (improving several health behaviors among adolescent girls) related to the FitSpirit program.19, 20, 21 The FitSpirit approach is based on factors such as extensive knowledge of teen girls' barriers to PA, school setting, multisport, positive role models, fun instead of competition, and relatedness (friends).18 Before the COVID-19 pandemic, FitSpirit interventions were based on IP exercise mode. During the pandemic, IP activities were not allowed in most schools. Hence, some interventions shifted to V exercise mode. To keep supporting adolescents' PA levels, FitSpirit tried to adopt the same level of quality in the V mode as in the IP mode. Additionally, adults might access the online exercise videos for various purposes, such as engaging in workouts or sharing these resources with adolescents. To our knowledge, no research has been published investigating the detailed characteristics, behaviors, and demographic information of individuals engaging in tele-exercise. Additionally, studies examining how adolescent girls perceive themselves about exercise, particularly in contrasting the self-perceptions influenced by PA in IP and V exercise settings, still need to be included. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to describe the experiences of using FitSpirit asynchronous V exercise videos among adolescents and adults, (2) to compare PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables among groups (2019 IP, 2021 IP, and 2021 V) of adolescent girls and (3) to assess the association between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables in response to two different exercise modes (IP and V) among adolescents.
2. Methods
2.1. Ethical approval
Informed consent was obtained from each participant, and the research protocol was approved by the ethical committee of the Université de Montréal (Comité d’éthique de la recherche en santé - CERES, #16160, 21/12/2016). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
2.2. Respondents
This study included the IP participants of the FitSpirit intervention and the users of V FitSpirit PA exercise videos. Both types of interventions targeted adolescent girls (12–17 years old). This study was exploratory in nature; consequently, we did not perform a sample size calculation prior to its commencement. Written consent was required for respondents (14 years and older) or their parents (12 and 13 years old). We recruited the respondents for IP and V modes differently. For the IP mode, we implemented interventions in schools across Quebec and Ontario, aiming to ensure geographical and cultural diversity within the Canadian context. In 2019, 5 to 10 participants per school were selected randomly through a draw among the individuals who had enrolled in FitSpirit and provided research consent. In 2021, all participants with consent were invited to fill out the questionnaire. For the V mode, we employed multiple recruitment strategies to enhance diversity and representativeness. Publicity was disseminated via FitSpirit social media platforms to reach a broad audience across different regions and backgrounds. Additionally, emails were sent to the FitSpirit community members, informing them of the availability of the V training. At the end of the V training sessions, participants were invited via an announcement on the FitSpirit website22 to complete the evaluation questionnaire. These methods aimed to attract a wide range of participants, although we acknowledge the potential for self-selection bias given the voluntary nature of participation. Due to ethical considerations, the questionnaire related to V exercise respondents was for older adolescents (14–17 years old).
2.3. Procedures
Data were collected for both the IP and V interventions using online questionnaires. They were completed around the end of the school year, corresponding to the end of the IP FitSpirit interventions in May/June 2019 and May/June 2021 and the V FitSpirit intervention in June 2021. The questionnaires were meticulously crafted by a panel of experts specializing in health and educational research. Their design was informed by insights garnered from a preliminary study conducted in 2017, ensuring the questions were both relevant and targeted. To assure the reliability and validity of the surveys, we incorporated questions that have been previously validated and employed in the Canadian Health Measures Survey,23 ensuring that our tools adhere to established research standards. The validity of these questions has been corroborated through various studies,20,21 establishing their efficacy in accurately capturing health-related data among the target demographic. The surveys were made available in both English and French, ensuring wide accessibility and inclusiveness.
Most schools had IP FitSpirit interventions between March and May/June in the 2018–2019 and 2020–2021 school years, while the V intervention took place between April and June 2021. In IP interventions, respondents performed FitSpirit PA sessions at their schools. The V interventions were based on asynchronous exercise models, and respondents performed the FitSpirit physical exercises at home (when they wanted, without needing real-time or live exercises) by watching recorded videos available online.22
2.4. Outcome measures
The questionnaire to assess IP PA interventions included questions about sociodemographic information, PA levels (defined as the number of days/week with PA at moderate to vigorous intensity levels), and exercise-related self-perception questions. The PA levels were derived from the question, “How many days per week are you physically active for at least 60 min?”. Questions about being proud (“At the end of the FitSpirit training sessions, I generally felt proud of myself”), being disappointed (“At the end of the FitSpirit training sessions, I generally felt disappointed in my performance”), and feeling good (“At the end of the FitSpirit training sessions, I generally felt good in my skin”) after FitSpirit exercise were the exercise-related self-perception variables.
A questionnaire assessed the experience of using FitSpirit V exercise videos. The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic information, workout participation (yes/no), perceived difficulty levels of the workout (too easy, adequate, or too difficult), and the intention to use FitSpirit exercise videos again (5-point Likert-type scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree). The questionnaire was the same for adolescents and adults, except for one question. The question exclusively for adolescents was, “I feel like coming back to this page and watching/participating in a workout again within the next two weeks”. It was scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The question exclusively for adults was, “Do you plan on returning to this page and watching/participating in a workout within the next two weeks?”. It was scored on a 3-point scale (yes, maybe, and no).
2.5. Data analyses
The questionnaire's respondents were divided into three groups: 2019 IP, 2021 IP, and 2021 V. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the participants and their use of V exercise videos. We have run two different analyses according to the study's aims. First, comparing adolescent and adult workout participation, perceived difficulty level of workouts, and intention to reuse FitSpirit exercise asynchronous videos were performed using chi-square (χ2) tests. Also, we dichotomized respondents' intention to use the videos again (1 = yes or agree; 0 = all other responses). Second, a one-way ANOVA test was used to assess the differences in the PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables between the three groups (2019 IP, 2021 IP, 2021 V). The effect size eta squared was calculated for each outcome analysis to demonstrate the magnitude of the differences between the groups. The recommendations for interpreting the eta squared value are: below 0.06 = small effect; between 0.06 and 0.14 = moderate effect; above 0.14 = large effect.24 A Tukey post-hoc was used to examine the differences between groups further. A Pearson test was performed to analyze the correlations between exercise-related self-perception variables and PA levels in response to two different exercise modes (IP and V) among adolescents. Variables with zero frequency were excluded from the analysis. Only respondents with complete data were included in the analyses. The SPSS version 27.0 was used to analyze the data (IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 27.0, Armonk, NY, USA). Continuous data were reported as mean ± standard deviation, while categorical data were presented as frequency (percentage). The significance level was set at 0.05.
3. Results
3.1. Respondents’ characteristics
To study the experience of using FitSpirit V exercise videos, 28 adolescents with a mean age of 15.5 (± 0.8) years and 29 adults with a mean age of 33.0 (± 10.3) years participated. For the association between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables in IP and V exercise modes among adolescents, 376 girls (from 100 schools) with a mean age of 15.3 (± 1.7) years in 2019 IP, 339 girls (from 84 schools) with a mean age of 14.9 (± 1.6) years in 2021 IP, and 27 girls (one girl was excluded for the second set of analyses because of missing data on exercise-related self-conception variables) with a mean age of 15.5 (± 0.8) years in 2021 V participated. Ninety-seven adolescents and 11 adults (two men and nine women) were excluded from the analyses (Fig. 1) due to missing data: Forty-five respondents were from the 2019 IP group, 40 from the 2021 IP group, and 23 from the 2021 V group. The information about the data collection schedule is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 1.
Flowchart showing study sample selection.
Note: PA: physical activity.
Fig. 2.
Schedule of data collection. Note: n: number of participants.
One girl was excluded for analyzing association between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables; Data are mean ± standard deviation.
3.2. Experience in using FitSpirit V exercise videos
In the experience of using FitSpirit asynchronous V exercise videos, most of the participants did a whole workout session. Also, the difficulty level of the workout was adequate for most of them. Adults had a significantly higher intention to use again V exercise videos than adolescents (p < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences between adolescents and adults in workout participation and the perceived level of difficulty of the workout. (Table 1).
Table 1.
Experience of using FitSpirit asynchronous V exercise videos among adolescents and adults.
| Variable | Adolescents (n = 28) |
Adults (n = 29) |
χ2 | p-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n (%) | n (%) | |||||
| Workout participation | 1.04 | 0.241 | ||||
| No, I didn't watch or participate | 0 | (0%)a | 0 | (0%) | ||
| I've watched without participating | 0 | (0%) | 0 | (0%) | ||
| Yes, I did part of a workout session | 8 | (14.04%) | 5 | (8.77%) | ||
| Yes, I did a whole workout session | 20 | (35.09%) | 24 | (42.11%) | ||
| Difficulty level of workout | 0.83 | 0.318 | ||||
| Too easy | 4 | (7.02%) | 2 | (3.51%) | ||
| Adequate | 24 | (42.11%) | 27 | (47.37%) | ||
| Too difficult | 0 | (0%) | 0 | (0%) | ||
| Intention to use again videos | 21.77 | < 0.001 | ||||
| Yes or strongly agree | 4 | (7.02%) | 22 | (38.60%) | ||
| All other responses | 24 | (42.11%) | 7 | (12.28%) | ||
Note: V: virtual; n (%): number (percentage) of the participants; χ2: chi-square; p-values were based on chi-square test. Statistical significance: p < 0.05.
Where the variables were zero, they were excluded from the analysis.
3.3. Association between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables in IP and V exercise modes among adolescents
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the comparison variables (PA levels, being proud, being disappointed, and feeling good) for adolescents who participated in 2019 IP, 2021 IP, and 2021 V groups.
Table 2.
Descriptive data for PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables of adolescent girls.
| Variable | 2019 IP (n = 376) |
2021 IP (n = 339) |
2021 V (n = 27) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | (%) | M ± SD | n | (%) | M ± SD | n | (%) | M ± SD | |
| PA levels | 3.27 ± 0.91 | 4.34 ± 1.58 | 4.11 ± 1.95 | ||||||
| One day/week | 13 | (3.5%) | 8 | (2.3%) | 2 | (7.4%) | |||
| Two days/week | 47 | (12.5%) | 31 | (9.1%) | 4 | (14.9%) | |||
| Three days/week | 174 | (46.3%) | 78 | (23.1%) | 6 | (22.2%) | |||
| Four days/week | 110 | (29.2%) | 70 | (20.6%) | 5 | (18.5%) | |||
| Five days/week | 32 | (8.5%) | 67 | (19.8%) | 2 | (7.4%) | |||
| Six days/week | – | 44 | (13%) | 3 | (11.1%) | ||||
| Everyday | – | 41 | (12.1%) | 5 | (18.5%) | ||||
| Being Proud | 4.15 ± 0.82 | 4.22 ± 0.81 | 4.33 ± 0.73 | ||||||
| Strongly disagree | 1 | (0.3%) | 1 | (0.3%) | – | ||||
| Disagree | 13 | (3.5%) | 7 | (2.1%) | – | ||||
| Neither agree nor disagree | 58 | (15.4%) | 56 | (16.5%) | 4 | (14.8%) | |||
| Agree | 161 | (42.8%) | 128 | (37.7%) | 10 | (37.1%) | |||
| Strongly agree | 143 | (38%) | 147 | (43.4%) | 13 | (48.1%) | |||
| Being disappointed | 1.98 ± 0.94 | 1.94 ± 0.89 | 1.67 ± 0.92 | ||||||
| Strongly disagree | 137 | (36.4%) | 125 | (36.9%) | 15 | (55.6%) | |||
| Disagree | 140 | (37.2%) | 128 | (37.8%) | 8 | (29.6%) | |||
| Neither agree nor disagree | 74 | (19.7%) | 70 | (20.7%) | 2 | (7.4%) | |||
| Agree | 21 | (5.6%) | 13 | (3.8%) | 2 | (7.4%) | |||
| Strongly agree | 4 | (1.1%) | 3 | (0.8%) | 0 | (0%) | |||
| Feeling good | 3.80 ± 0.89 | 3.84 ± 0.88 | 4.00 ± 0.88 | ||||||
| Strongly disagree | 2 | (0.5%) | 3 | (0.9%) | – | ||||
| Disagree | 22 | (5.8%) | 13 | (3.8%) | 1 | (3.7%) | |||
| Neither agree nor disagree | 115 | (30.6%) | 106 | (31.3%) | 7 | (25.9%) | |||
| Agree | 148 | (39.4%) | 130 | (38.3%) | 10 | (37.1%) | |||
| Strongly agree | 89 | (23.7%) | 87 | (25.7%) | 9 | (33.3%) | |||
Note: n (%): number (percentage) of the participants; M: Mean; SD: Standard deviation; PA: physical activity; IP: in-person; V: virtual.
The mean values presented for PA levels, being proud, being disappointed, and feeling good are from Likert scales that were transformed to mean values.
PA levels are defined by the number of day(s) per week a total of 60 min of moderate to vigorous PA was performed.
According to the results in Table 3, there was a statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of the PA levels (F[2, 739] = 60.64, p < 0.001) with a large effect size of 0.14. The Tukey post-hoc showed that PA levels were significantly lower in the 2019 IP group compared to the 2021 IP and 2021 V groups, p < 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively. In 2019, there were no participants who were active on six or more days per week. In contrast, approximately 13% of participants in the 2021 IP group were active for six/every days a week, while around 11% engaged in activity for six days and about 18% every day in the 2021 V groups. Statistically significant differences were not found between 2021 IP and 2021 V groups for PA levels.
Table 3.
Comparison of the PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables between groups (2019 IP, 2021 IP, and 2021 V) of adolescent girls (one-way ANOVA).
| Variables | Category | SS | df | ES | F | p-value | Post hoc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PA levels |
Between Groups | 206.156 | 2 | 0.141 | 60.64 | <0.001 | 2019IP < 2021IPa |
| Within Groups | 1 256.200 | 739 | 2019IP < 2021Vb | ||||
| Total |
1 462.356 |
741 |
|||||
| Being proud |
Between Groups | 1.455 | 2 | 0.003 | 1.09 | 0.336 | – |
| Within Groups | 491.506 | 739 | |||||
| Total |
492.961 |
741 |
|||||
| Being disappointed |
Between Groups | 2.449 | 2 | 0.004 | 1.45 | 0.236 | – |
| Within Groups | 625.605 | 739 | |||||
| Total |
628.054 |
741 |
|||||
| Feeling good | Between Groups | 1.187 | 2 | 0.002 | 0.76 | 0.469 | – |
| Within Groups | 578.037 | 739 | |||||
| Total | 579.224 | 741 |
Note: SS: Sum of Squares; df: degree of freedom; ES: Eta Square; PA: physical activity; IP: in-person; V: virtual. The post-hoc column shows significant differences between groups (V vs. IP) based on Tukey post-hoc tests.
a: p < 0.001.
b: p = 0.004.
Statistical significance: p < 0.05.
Table 4 shows the results of the Pearson correlation between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables in response to two different exercise modes among adolescents. For IP exercise mode, we observed a positive correlation between PA levels and being proud (r = 0.08, p = 0.046) and feeling good (r = 0.14, p = < 0.001), and also a negative correlation between PA levels and being disappointed (r = −0.12, p ≤ 0.001). However, there were no correlations between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables for V exercise mode.
Table 4.
Pearson correlations of PA levels and exercise-related self-perception variables in response to two different exercise modes (IP and V) among adolescent girls.
| PA levels | Being proud | Being disappointed | Feeling good | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V |
PA levels | – | −0.081 | −0.043 | 0.293 |
| Being Proud | – | −0.513∗ | 0.120 | ||
| Being Disappointed | – | −0.286 | |||
| Feeling good |
– |
||||
| IP | PA levels | – | 0.075∗ | −0.121∗ | 0.135∗ |
| Being Proud | – | −0.387∗ | 0.518∗ | ||
| Being Disappointed | – | −0.400∗ | |||
| Feeling good | – |
Note: PA: physical activity; V: virtual; IP: in-person.
∗ Correlation is significant p < 0.05.
4. Discussion
The findings of this study provide the first insight into supporting the use of IP training rather than V exercise mode for better promoting PA and improving exercise-related self-perception in adolescent girls.
Notably, we observed strong and significant correlations between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception among adolescents in IP exercise mode. Contrary to expectations, there was no association between PA levels and exercise-related self-perception among adolescents in V exercise mode. This finding suggests that better exercise-related self-perception is applied to PA levels when adolescent girls use IP exercise mode rather than V exercise mode. One of the most significant differences between IP and V exercise modes is the absence of social interactions during PA in V exercise mode. In addition, adolescent girls see school sports as an excellent opportunity to be physically active, with spending time with friends being the most important reason for participating.25 Also, some review studies found that social support from friends is associated with higher PA levels in adolescents,26,27 and exercise-related self-perception is directly correlated to PA levels in adolescent girls.26 Possible impacts of social interactions and relationships (friends and peers) on exercise-related self-perceptions have been investigated. These studies found that the importance of friend and peer relationships in the improvement of exercise-related self-perception,28 as well as connection to friends and peers, has a unique contribution to the PA levels of adolescents, mediated by exercise-related self-perception.29 Growing evidence shows the strong influence of friends in forming positive self-perceptions that affect motivation to be physically active.28, 29, 30 Consequently, the absence of social interactions in V exercise mode could explain the lack of association between PA levels and self-perception variables.
Friends play an important role in adolescents' PA levels.31,32 Friends and peers need to be involved in PA programs in a diversity of forms when adolescents are to lead a physically active lifestyle.33 Our results indicated that the adult respondents had a significantly higher intention to use again FitSpirit V exercise videos, which target adolescents, than the adolescents themselves. A possible explanation for adolescents' low intention of using V exercise videos during COVID-19 could be linked to differences in sticking to individualized exercise rather than group exercise.34
The PA levels increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 in comparison with pre-COVID-19 in 2019 among adolescents in this study, which agrees with some studies35,36 but differs from some other studies.13, 14, 15,37, 38, 39, 40 The different PA levels of adolescents between studies may simply be explained by the differences in COVID-19 policy restrictions.36 Another explanation for this result might be that we could not collect data in 2020 because of the intense health restrictions. The PA levels might have decreased in 2020 during the lockdown and increased afterward in 2021. The self-determination theory (Individual's basic psychological needs, including the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and a tendency to focus more on health may explain the higher PA levels during COVID-19 than pre-COVID-19 in our study.35,41 During COVID-19, the PA levels were similar in IP and V exercise groups. However, some studies have shown that the IP mode allows adolescents to interact socially and increase group-based training, which is often more productive than the V mode.37,42 Though the V mode can be accessed anytime by adolescents,38,43 there is still no evidence that the V exercise mode is superior to the IP exercise mode or vice versa.39,44 The current findings expand this concept, as engagement in PA is critical for adolescent girls; if the COVID-19 restriction allows, it may be better to use IP exercise mode rather than V exercise mode.
This study is the first to investigate the self-perception profiles of individuals using IP and V exercise modes during a pandemic. In addition, no other studies compared the differences between IP and V exercise modes in the exercise-related self-perception of adolescent girls. For these two reasons, the results of this study can be used as a reference for future investigation into the use of V training. This study has a limitation in that it lacks specific details about the training, including the type, intensity, and volume for both V and IP sessions. In addition, the videos for V training were not customized based on individual factors such as age or fitness levels. This limitation was partly due to the initial design of the study, focusing more on feasibility and overall effect rather than on detailed exercise parameters. Another limitation of this study is the small sample for the V component. Also, its cross-sectional design makes it impossible to infer causality. In addition, the outcomes in our study can be partly explained by some participation bias, where the most motivated girls were those participating in the FitSpirit intervention during the pandemic. Another limitation is that the respondents' variables measured in the present study are self-reported. Future research should continue to focus on the other aspects of the pandemic to understand better the association between PA interventions and self-perception variables among adolescents.
5. Conclusion
These findings highlight the importance of IP exercise mode for adolescents to promote positive exercise-related self-perception. These preliminary findings support that when the pandemic restrictions allow, IP exercise mode leads to greater improvement in exercise-related self-perception in adolescent girls than V exercise mode videos. However, we acknowledge that these results were obtained within a specific cultural and environmental setting, and may not directly apply to all populations or settings. Future research should explore these findings across diverse cultural and environmental contexts to determine the universality of these effects and to understand the potential variations in how different populations perceive and benefit from various exercise modes.
Ethical approval statement
Informed consent was obtained from each participant, and the research protocol was approved by the ethical committee of the Université de Montréal (Comité d’éthique de la recherche en santé - CERES, #16160, 21/12/2016). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Funding
The study is co-funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the FitSpirit organization.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Shirko Ahmadi: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Jo-Anne Gilbert: Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation. Mélysiane Marcotte: Writing – review & editing, Resources, Investigation, Data curation. Roseane de Fátima Guimarães: Writing – review & editing, Resources, Conceptualization. Marie-Eve Mathieu: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.
Conflict of interest
We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.
Acknowledgement
We thank the contributions of all the co-researchers who participated in the research and the questionnaire— Geneviève Leduc: Senior Programs Advisor, FitSpirit, Quebec. Jonathan Tremblay: associate professor and researcher, École de kinésiologie et des sciences de l'activité physique, Université de Montréal, Québec. We thank the FitSpirit organization's cooperation. We thank the intervention's participation of all the girls, school administrators, coordinators, and school boards. We thank Miguel Chagnon and Justine Zehr for their statistical support.
Footnotes
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhs.2024.03.007.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
The following is the Supplementary data to this article:
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