Physical Activity Research Team for Youth - (Aka PARTy)

The Physical Activity Research Team for Youth (PARTY) has been building lines of research focused on understanding and promoting physical activity behavior in youth. The focus of the work is on psychometric research on motivation and theoretical factors in youth activity promotion but this work is leading to other related lines of research. The team has been assisting with coordination of the Iowa FITNESSGRAM Initiative.

The PARTy team consists of 3 faculty (Dr. Senlin Chen, Dr. Spyridoula, and Dr. Greg Welk) and associated graduate students (Yoonho Nam, Amanda Mischo, and Yang Bai) that share a collective interest in youth activity promotion. Each faculty member contributes different perspectives but the focus of our collaborative work is on developing and refiining behavioral and psychological tools to faciltate the evaluation of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of youth regarding physical activity and physical education. The team collaborates on papers and research to advance this work. Members work through a related lab space (Pediatric Exercise Laboratory) in the basement of the Forker Building.