Middle school students’ attitudes toward physical education

The purpose of this study was to determine middle school students’ attitudes toward physical education using an attitude instrument grounded in attitude theory. In addition, this investigation also sought to ascertain if gender and grade level influence student attitudes toward the subject matter. Participants for this study were 995 students from grades 6 to 8. A previously validated attitude instrument based on a two-component view of attitude with scores that showed evidence of reliability and validity was used. Overall all students had moderately positive attitudes toward physical education. There was, however, a decline in attitude scores as students progressed in grade level. Higher grades had lower mean scores.