Developing an eHealth Yoga Program for Children – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Developing an eHealth Yoga Program for Children

Joseph Drennan

UROP Logo

Pronouns: he/him

Research Mentor(s): Carissa Wengrovius, Graduate Student Research Assistant (PhD Candidate)
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Movement Science, School of Kinesiology
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 4 (2pm-2:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 13
Presenter: 3

Event Link

Abstract

With the rise in popularity of children’s yoga and a greater emphasis on both mental and physical health it is important to establish potential benefits that are reliable and backed by evidence found with strong methodology. Recent systematic reviews, focusing on school aged yoga studies, concluded that methodological limitations such as not measuring fidelity of program implementation (FOI) make it difficult to provide trustworthy conclusions. A component of FOI assessment is establishing Inter-rater reliability for observational measures. This study will explore the potential benefits in children as a direct result of a virtual yoga program implemented into the school day, looking specifically at levels of physical activity, stress, and interoceptive awareness, as well as sleep patterns. Trained raters will identify whether children are on task or off task during the virtual yoga sessions. To measure outcome changes, parents/guardians will complete online surveys using valid and reliable scales. In order to limit statistical ambiguities between raters, they completed three rounds of trainings and practice using recorded yoga sessions. Percent agreement and Cohen’s kappa were established, and necessary adjustments were made to the coding system before the next round of practice. Agreement between the raters improved over the practice trials demonstrated by a change in Cohen’s kappa (k = 0.56 to 0.80). Having reliable participation data will allow the researchers to compare levels of participation with data collected from the parent/guardian surveys. Results will establish reliable new evidence for the field and have important applications for future yoga research in school-based settings.

Authors: Joseph Drennan, Carissa Wengrovius
Research Method: Qualitative Study

lsa logoum logo