Health benefits of regular physical activity (PA) in adolescents are well known (World Health Organization, 2020). The World Health Organization (2020) recommends that adolescents should do at least an average of 60 min per day of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) across the week. However, worldwide more than 80% of adolescents do not meet this recommendation (Guthold et al., 2020). Therefore, the promotion of adequate PA levels among adolescents is an important public health priority, which can take place in different settings of daily life (World Health Organization, 2018). Among others, the Physical Education (PE) subject plays an essential role in adolescents’ PA promotion (Association for Physical Education, 2020; World Health Organization, 2020), because it has been shown to have positive effects on their PA levels at school (Mayorga-Vega et al., 2018). Also, it provides adolescents with health literacy skills that empower them to be physically active outside school (Slingerland and Borghouts, 2011).

Although one of the main PE national standards worldwide is the promotion of studentsʼ lifelong PA (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2013; SHAPE America, 2013), there are several limitations that make difficult its achievement (Casado-Robles et al., 2019). For example, the large volume of curricular objectives and contents that have to be developed in a fairly limited time (Casado-Robles et al., 2019) or the difficulty of controlling studentsʼ PA outside school (Casado-Robles et al., 2019). A feasible solution could be promoting PA practice through the application of the intermittent teaching unit structure proposed by Viciana and Mayorga-Vega (2016). Intermittent teaching units are defined as those teaching units given in small temporary periods during all the lessons of the course or of a specific period (Viciana and Mayorga-Vega, 2016). For instance, this innovative structure of the teaching unit could consist of only a few minutes of each PE lesson (e.g., the last 15 min) for several lessons. Thus, it allows for dividing the lesson into several parts (i.e., two) and developing two or more related curricular objectives during the same lesson. This could provide teachers a more efficient use of the limited PE time developing various goals during the lessons, and students the opportunity to establish relationships between different PE-related contents. Previous empirical studies have shown the effectiveness of this teaching unit structure in developing and maintaining different health-related physical fitness curricular objectives over time, such as cardiorespiratory fitness or strength (Mayorga-Vega et al., 2016; Guijarro-Romero et al., 2020). Nevertheless, to date it has not been applied for promoting studentsʼ PA practice.

Additionally, even though PE is potentially considered a key context to promote studentsʼ PA (Association for Physical Education, 2020; World Health Organization, 2020), most PE-based interventions seem to show small or non-significant effects on increasing students’ PA levels (Borde et al., 2017; Love et al., 2019). Furthermore, Nguyen et al. (2016) observed that intervention effects diminish over the time, which may compromise long-term effectiveness of PA promotion interventions. The lack of theoretical behavior change frameworks in the design of school-based interventions could be the cause of these small effect sizes (Borde et al., 2017; Rhodes et al., 2017). Therefore, applying PE-based PA interventions, specifically grounded in theoretical frameworks of behavior change, could help to enhance motivational outcomes in PE and leisure-time PA context, as well as to maintain the beneficial effects of an intervention over time (Kwasnicka et al., 2016; Rhodes et al., 2017).

The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a motivational theory widely used to understand the antecedents and consequences of studentsʼ motivation toward PA both in the school context of PE and in the out-of-school context (Deci and Ryan, 1985; Ryan and Deci, 2020). The SDT considers motivation as a multidimensional construct with different levels along a continuum according to the degree of autonomy, ranging from more self-determined (i.e., autonomous) to less self-determined (i.e., controlled) forms of behavioral regulations (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Autonomous forms of motivation include intrinsic motivation, as well as integrated, and identified regulation (Ryan et al., 2021). Intrinsic motivation is related to the inherent pleasure and satisfaction provided by an activity; integrated regulation refers when activity is completely assimilated with individual’s sense of self; and identified regulation refers when an activity is aligned with personal values (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Controlled forms of motivation comprise introjected (i.e., acting to avoid sense of guilt or anxiety or to protect contingent self-worth) and external (i.e., doing an activity for contingent rewards or avoid punishments) regulations (Ryan and Deci, 2020; Ryan et al., 2021). Finally, amotivation is characterized by no intention of an individual to act due to different reasons such as lack of certain skills or knowledge necessary to act (Ryan and Deci, 2020). The SDT postulates that everyone has three basic psychological needs: autonomy, which refers to the need for initiative and ownership in one’s own behavior; competence, which refers to the need to feel capable of performing a behavior effectively, and relatedness, which refers to the need of belonging and connection by significant others (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Satisfaction of these three basic psychological needs, leads students to acquire more autonomous forms of motivation toward PA (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Furthermore, according to the SDT the autonomy support of PE teachers in PE plays a key role in the development of a more autonomous motivation toward PA (Ryan and Deci, 2020), which is positively associated with the interest in remaining active in the out-of-school time (Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022). The autonomy-supportive teaching style is characterized by making students feel that they can participate in their own learning (Ryan and Deci, 2020). In this sense, Stefanou et al. (2004) proposed that autonomy support could be characterized by three clearly different dimensions: organizational (i.e., autonomy in terms of encouraging students’ ownership of decisions in relation to PA), procedural (i.e., autonomy in terms of encouraging studentsʼ to conduct the teaching-learning process), and cognitive (i.e,, autonomy in terms of promoting studentsʼ ownership to express and argue their particular viewpoint in the teaching-learning process). According to SDT framework, the application of an autonomy-supportive teaching style and the improvement of students’ autonomous motivation are considered key determining factors related to the acquisition and maintenance of students’ PA (Teixeira et al., 2012).

Based on the SDT and on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the trans-contextual model (TCM) was developed to conceptualize the transfer of self-determined motivation from educational contexts to out-of school contexts (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016; Viciana et al., 2019). The premise behind this model is that motivation in these two contexts are likely to be highly salient in determining studentsʼ intentions and participation in PA. The TCM proposes three empirically testable propositions to explain the mechanisms by which teachersʼ support for motivation in school PE affects studentsʼ involvement in PA (Hagger et al., 2003). Firstly, studentsʼ perceptions of PE teachersʼ autonomy support are proposed to be related to their autonomous motivation toward activities performed in PE. Secondly, autonomous motivation in PE will predict autonomous motivation toward similar activities in leisure-time contexts. Thirdly, autonomous motivation in leisure-time contexts will predict studentsʼ future intentions to participate in similar activities, as well as actual behavioral engagement (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016; Viciana et al., 2019). Specifically, the model suggests that attitude (i.e., studentsʼ perception of negative or positive evaluation of carrying out PA), subjective norm (i.e., studentsʼ perception of normative expectations to carry out or not to carry out PA), and perceived behavioral control (i.e., studentsʼ beliefs of ease or difficulty to perform PA) seem to be positively influenced by students’ autonomous motivation for leisure-time PA (González-Cutre et al., 2014a,b). As a consequence, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control will positively influence PA intention, which will ultimately manifest in behaviors that will encourage students to integrate PA as part of their lives (González-Cutre et al., 2014a,b; Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016). The systematic review conducted by Hagger and Chatzisarantis (2016) showed empirical support of the TCM across multiple studies conducted in the PE context, highlighting significant relationships between perceived autonomy support and self-determined motivation in PE (i.e., first proposition), between self-determined motivation in PE and in PA (i.e., second proposition), and between self-determined motivation and intention toward PA and actual PA engagement (i.e., third proposition).

In addition to the aforementioned individual theories related to studentsʼ PA promotion, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the inclusion of behavior change techniques (Abraham and Michie, 2008) such as PA self-monitoring (e.g., activity wristbands) as part of the PA promotion programs has shown to be an effective strategy in increasing studentsʼ motivation toward PA practice, as well as the practice itself (Casado-Robles et al., 2022a,b). Furthermore, this systematic review and meta-analysis also found that incorporating a greater number of behavior modification strategies (e.g., educational counseling lessons or goal settings; Abraham and Michie, 2008) have also shown to be effective for promoting motivation toward PA among students from the PE setting (Casado-Robles et al., 2022a,b). In this sense, only four studies in the PE setting have examined the effects of intervention programs based on the use of activity wristbands, either alone or in combination with other behavior modification strategies, on high school students’ PA practice promotion (Casado-Robles et al., 2022a,b). Unfortunately, to our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the effect of intermittent teaching units based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies on studentsʼ PA practice mediators and PA practice itself. Additionally, although previous research has evidenced TCM to be a useful framework for understanding the role of self-determined motivation in PE in fostering PA (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016), the current research evidence of PE-based intervention studies according to the postulates of the TCM is still scarce (Casado-Robles et al., 2022a). Especially incorporating innovative teaching unit structures together with activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies. The present study was designed to address these needs from a holistic perspective by investigating the effectiveness of an intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies and promoting an autonomy-supportive teaching style. Consequently, the main objective of the present study was to examine the effects of an intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies on high school studentsʼ perceptions of autonomy support, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, autonomous and controlled motivation toward PE and PA, intention to be physically active, and habitual PA levels. In line with the TCM tenets (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016) and previous research that provide empirical support of the application of the TCM in the PE context (Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022), the main hypotheses were that students who perform the intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies will manifest: a) higher perceptions of autonomy support, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and in consequence, higher autonomous and controlled motivation toward PE; b) higher motivation toward PA, intention to be physically active, and as a consequence, higher habitual PA levels compared with students in the control condition.

The main objective of the present study was to examine the effects of an intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies on high school studentsʼ perceptions of autonomy support, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, autonomous and controlled motivation toward PE and PA, intention to be physically active, and habitual PA levels. Little research has examined the effects of intervention programs based on the use of activity wristbands on adolescents PA practice mediators, either alone or in combination with other strategies following the tenets of TCM. Results of this study have shown that the intermittent teaching unit improved studentsʼ cognitive and procedural autonomy support, as well as habitual PA levels from pre- to post-intervention. Interpreting the results under the tenets of the TCM, it seems that the PE intervention, centered on the promotion of studentsʼ autonomy for the participation in PA could increase their perception of autonomy support. This could be due to that: 1) the intervention was based on a continuous analysis of the information recorded by the activity wristband which provided students with feedback of their daily PA habits (Casado-Robles et al., 2022b), and 2) the educational PA counseling that included a wide variety of information about PA practice (Neil-Sztramko et al., 2021; Casado-Robles et al., 2022b). These findings are in line with previous school-based PA interventions where PE teachers support students’ leisure-time PA (González-Cutre et al., 2014a; Casado-Robles et al., 2022a; Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022). Regarding the absence of differences on the organizational autonomy factor, it could be because, although the PE teacher suggested a variety of activities that students could perform in different contexts (i.e., school recess and leisure time), most of them were based on achieving steps. Therefore, other activities like swimming, riding a bike or skipping rope, among others, were not suggested. This could lead students to perceived that these activities are the only ones that could be performed in the aforementioned contexts. However, it is important to highlight that they were suggestions, but students had the opportunity to choose what they considered more suitable to achieve the step goals proposed.

According to the TCM, autonomy support in PE will predict autonomous motivation in PE, which in turn influences his/her autonomous motivation toward similar activities in leisure-time contexts (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016). Contrary to the TCM proposition (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016) and past evidence (Cheon and Reeve, 2013; Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022), in the present study the increase showed in autonomy support was not translated into a positive effect in students’ motivational outcomes to leisure-time PA (i.e., basic psychological needs satisfaction and motivation toward PE and PA) from pre- to post-intervention. However, none of these studies used activity wristbands for promoting PA practice. Similar to the present study, Kerner and Goodyear (2017) examined the effect of wearing an activity wristband during eight weeks on studentsʼ motivation toward PA. These authors found that activity wristbands negatively impacted studentsʼ motivation toward PA. Nevertheless, this study did not apply any specific strategy during the intervention period. On the contrary, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the inclusion of activity wristbands together with other behavior modification strategies as part of the PA promotion programs is an effective strategy to increase studentsʼ motivation toward PA practice (Casado-Robles et al., 2022b). In this sense, although the teaching unit applied in this study was centered on teaching the students about the importance of practicing regular PA and included strategies that have shown to be effective for promoting studentsʼ PA practice mediators (e.g., motivation; Casado-Robles et al., 2022b), maybe the time used of each teaching unit lesson (i.e., 15 min), as well as the total length of the intervention (Neil-Sztramko et al., 2021), were not enough to produce an improvement in these variables. González-Cutre et al. (2016) pointed out that strategies of PA promotion require time to become operational and modify studentsʼ behavior. Moreover, group competition established during the intervention could also affect the improvement of studentsʼ autonomy, competence and relatedness needs, since when students lose in competitions or do not achieve the objective (i.e., progressive steps challenges), perceptions of competence and intrinsic motivation decrease (Kerner and Goodyear, 2017). Additionally, another possible explanation of the lack of change in these variables in the IG could be the high starting values of IG studens for these variables which would be difficult to increase (González-Cutre et al., 2014b). Perhaps, if the intervention included other support agents like parents or tutors (Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022), as well as an innovative methodology like gamification, which have been shown to be effective strategies for improving students’ motivation (Arufe-Giráldez et al., 2022), an increase in this variable could be achieved.

Regarding studentsʼ intention to be physically active, results of this study showed that the intermittent teaching unit did not influence this PA mediator. These results are opposite to previous studies carried out in the PE setting that have also applied autonomy-supportive teaching styles and have found that student’s intention to be physically active increased (Cheon and Reeve, 2013; Casado-Robles et al., 2022a). Nevertheless, results obtained in the present study with this variable seem logical considering that previous PA practice mediators according to the TCM (i.e., basic psychological needs and motivation) did not change either. Furthermore, another factor that could explain this result is the high values of intention to be physically active (8.7 out of 10 points) reported by IG students before the intervention. That is, it could be possible that students perceived that they already were motivated enough for PA practice without the need for extra motivation with the proposed intervention (Owen et al., 2014). Therefore, it is important to highlight that the maintenance of a high baseline motivation is an important achievement of the present study. In this sense, it seems necessary to study which specific strategies should be implemented in the interventions with these types of students to help them maintain their intention toward PA practice, or even to continue increasing it, therefore obtaining greater health-related benefits (World Health Organization, 2020). Surprisingly, after the intervention statistically significant differences were found in habitual PA levels of the IG students. These findings are very valuable, since although previous PA practice mediators did not increase, IG students reported that they performed PA with a higher frequency after the intervention. These results may be attributable to the higher perception in autonomy support from the PE teacher (González-Cutre et al., 2016), as well as by the use of PA wristbands and educational counseling provided during the intervention regarding the importance of practicing regular PA (Casado-Robles et al., 2022b). Additionally, although students’ motivational outcomes to leisure-time PA (i.e., basic psychological needs satisfaction, motivation toward PE and PA, and intention to practice) did not improve after the intervention, the high values maintained in all of them suggest that the third preposition of TCM could be confirmed (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016), and are consistent with previous studies (González-Cutre et al., 2016; Casado-Robles et al., 2022a; Sevil-Serrano et al., 2022). Contrary to these results, Bronikowski et al. (2016) found that after an eight-week intervention using activity wristbands, self-reported PA assessed using the same self-report measure (Martínez-Gómez et al., 2009) did not change. A possible explanation could be that these authors only applied one strategy to modify studentsʼ PA behavior (i.e., use of activity wristband), which it has been suggested to be less effective in comparison with multi-dimensional interventions that combine several strategies to influence PA practice mediators (Casado-Robles et al., 2022a,b).

To verify whether the effects are maintained over time, a follow-up measurement 6 weeks after the end of the intervention was performed. The results revealed that habitual PA level changes were maintained and even improved, meanwhile differences in perceived autonomy support and intention to be physically active were not found. These results seem logical for the following reasons. Firstly, no autonomy support from PE was applied during this period of the study. Secondly, as it has been mentioned previously, strategies of PA promotion require time to become operational and modify studentsʼ behavior (González-Cutre et al., 2016). Consequently, these results suggest that it would be necessary to increase the length of interventions to achieve greater effectiveness in PA practice mediators. In this sense, although no behavior modification strategies were applied (except the use of an activity wristband), students had the objective of autonomously maintaining at least 10,000 steps per day. However, the main difference was that there was no competition between students for achieving more steps. This fact could lead students to feel more comfortable with this part of the intervention program, therefore contributing to experiencing higher perceptions of autonomy need, as well as better integration (i.e., relatedness need) with their peers. Regarding competence need, the establishment of a specific step target (i.e., 10,000 steps/day) to be autonomously maintained might be the cause of the absence of differences in this variable. According to previous literature (Kerner and Goodyear, 2017) when students are only focused on the PA outcome (step target) rather than the process, it could lead to feeling that they are unable to complete the step target set in the activity wristband, making them think they are failing, which could negatively impact their sense of competence.

Additionally, new positive differences were observed in autonomy and relatedness needs and autonomous motivation toward PA. On the basis of the theorical tenets of TCM (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016), studentsʼ satisfaction of basic psychological needs in leisure-time PA could significantly contribute to autonomous motivation toward PE and this to autonomous motivation toward PA. Although motivation toward PE did not increase in a statistically significant manner from the post-intervention to the end of the follow-up period, it is important to highlight that the average punctuation in this variable was maintained and slightly increased, with already high values at the follow-up measurement. Finally, although no differences were found on studentsʼ intention to be physical, habitual PA levels increased again. In this sense, in addition to the responsibility of autonomously maintaining the PA practice with the help of activity wristbands that students had, the greater values in autonomous motivation toward PA obtained could help to increase their habitual PA levels (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016). Previous similar studies carried out in the PE setting observed that the habitual PA levels decrease after the follow-up period (e.g., Ridgers et al., 2021). However, it is important to point out that (Ridgers et al., 2021) follow-up was six months after the end of the intervention. The later follow-up together with the fact that no additional objectives were proposed to students during this period of time (i.e., do your best steps per day) could be the reasons for the lack of differences in habitual PA levels.

The main strength of the present study was that, this is the first study that examines the effects of an intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies on studentsʼ perceptions of autonomy support, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, autonomous and controlled motivation toward PE and PA, intention to be physically active, and habitual PA levels. Another strength is the inclusion of a follow-up measure to examine the long-term effectiveness of the program as suggested by previous literature (Nguyen et al., 2016). Moreover, because of the nature of the context (i.e., school) and with the objective of keeping the ecological validity, the use of a cluster-randomized controlled trial design (balanced by grade) was more appropriate for the present research objective (Campbell et al., 2012). Furthermore, the comparison with a CG that did not wear PA activity wristbands or receive any behavior modification strategy, allows us to check that the effects obtained are due to the intervention. Finally, the evaluation of the effect of the teaching unit with a Multilevel Linear Model with participants nested within classes and measures nested within participants as random effects, represents an advancement with respect to the commonly applied analyses (Li et al., 2017).

This study also has some limitations that should be acknowledged. Firstly, the non-probabilistic and relatively small sample size provides a lower generalization power. This limits the generalizability of the obtained outcomes to the particular studied population and context. However, due to human, time, and material resource restrictions, a probabilistic and larger sample could not be examined. Moreover, the teaching unit length could have been a limitation to achieving greater effects on the PA mediator variables. However, considering the large volume of objectives that have to be developed throughout the academic year with a very limited time for the PE subject (Casado-Robles et al., 2019), the purpose was to perform a real study that would be feasible to perform in the context of PE. Additionally, and according to the SDT framework which distinguishes six specific types of PE teacher interpersonal behaviors, only one of them was studied (i.e., autonomy support). Finally, SDT framework studied was only focused on the bright motivation path (i.e., need-supportive environment-need satisfaction-autonomous motivation-adaptive outcomes). That is, the need frustration and need-thwarting behaviors which are part of the dark motivational path were not studied. Future studies should include a probabilistic and larger sample, which provide a higher generalization of the obtained outcomes. Additionally, it would be interesting to reproduce the present study including additional social agents like parents or school teachers with the aim of checking if better results on studentsʼ PA practice mediators are obtained. Moreover, it would also be interesting reproducing this study and measuring PA objectively to check if the strategies applied really influence studentsʼ PA levels. Even, it would be interesting including a qualitative evaluation (i.e., interviews or focus groups) of the intervention program. This, would help us to deeply understand the specific perceptions and/or situations that students experience during the intervention. That is, the reasons why some motivational effects appear or not after the intervention, or why they are maintained or not over time.

An intermittent teaching unit based on the use of activity wristbands and behavior modification strategies was effective for improving studentsʼ perceptions of autonomy support and habitual PA levels. However, after six weeks of autonomous PA practice with the activity wristbands, new effects were observed in studentsʼ autonomy and relatedness needs, as well as in autonomous motivation toward PA. What is more, habitual PA levels also increase after the follow-up period. These results suggest that increasing the length of the intervention would allow to increase all psychological PA practice mediators, therefore, leading to actual PA engagement. Additionally, findings obtained in the present study and future similar studies, may help PE teachers and the scientific community to understand and design effective PA promotion programs based on behavior change theories that combine key aspects such as innovative teaching unit structures, PA self-monitoring, and behavior modification strategies that can affect student’s PA practice mediators and therefore their PA engagement.

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

The studies involving humans were approved by Ethical Committee for Human Studies at the University of Granada (code number: 1252/CEIH/2020). The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardians.

SG-R, DM-V, CC-R, and JV contributed to the conception and design of the study. SG-R and CC-R were responsible for collecting the data. DM-V carried out the analysis and interpretation of the data. SG-R and JV drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the final version.

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This publication is part of the School-Fit project (Reference number: A-SEJ-448-UGR20), funded by the FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades. [FEDER/ Regional Government of Andalusia-Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities].

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1228925/full#supplementary-material