The Impact of Active Breaks and Active Learning Intervention on Children’s Physical Activity, Motor Competence, and Physical Literacy: The BALA Study

Due to the number of children that do not meet the recommendations of physical activity (PA) practice, classroom-based PA, based on active breaks, and active learning can be an opportunity to increase student’s levels of PA within the school context. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of a multicomponent classroom-based PA intervention on the association between actual motor competence (AMC), PA, and perceived physical literacy (PPL) through multivariate techniques and structural equation modeling. A total of 194 primary school children participated in a 10-month quasi-experimental study. After the intervention, there was an increase in PA and maintenance of PPL levels of the participants’ experimental group, while the levels of PA and PPL of the participants’ control group decreased. Additionally, participants of both groups increased their AMC over time. There were relationships between study variables in T1, while the intervention strengthens the relationships between AMC-PA and AMC-PPL. The results support the benefits of classroom-based PA intervention to promote more active and healthier lifestyle from primary school.