S06-4 Exploring correlates of adolescent boys' muscular fitness: a mixed-methods formative study

Abstract Background According to the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis, anxiety and depression in children are associated with poor motor competence, and these associations may be mediated by social support and self-perceptions. Improving children’s motor competence through school-based physical activity interventions may therefore be a mechanism for promoting positive mental health through psychosocial factors. Co-production provides opportunities to participate in intervention development processes, thereby ensuring that specific needs of stakeholders are targeted. The shared stakeholder ownership of the process provides a context-sensitive basis for acceptable interventions with increased likelihood of them being effectively implemented and resulting in positive outcomes. This presentation describes phase 1 of the Move Well, Feel Good study, which aimed to co-produce and evaluate the feasibility of a primary school physical activity intervention to improve children’s motor competence and mental health. Methods Five primary schools were recruited from a low socioeconomic status community in northwest England. From these schools, stakeholder groups were formed consisting of class teachers, school leaders, physical activity specialists, and children (aged 8-9 years). Stakeholders worked in single and multiple stakeholder groups through a 6-stage process aligned to the Double Diamond Design Approach by employing divergent and convergent thinking processes to discover, define, develop, and deliver a solution to the ‘problems’ of how best to improve children’s motor competence and mental health, and how best to facilitate real-world school context implementation of the intervention. Through this process the child and adult stakeholders worked separately in workshops and engaged in additional learning and consensus activities. The adult stakeholder co-production workshops were informed by the children’s views and current research evidence. Multiple-stakeholder groups worked collaboratively to develop intervention ideas, which were presented, critiqued, and refined in alignment with the TIDieR checklist. Results In the final stage of the process the research team presented the final co-produced interventions back to the stakeholders and a consensus vote was taken to decide which intervention would be implemented in the phase 2 feasibility trial in September 2022. Conclusions School stakeholders’ participation in intervention co-production ensures their ownership of the finalised programme, which may be important for subsequent implementation and engagement.


Background
According to the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis, anxiety and depression in children are associated with poor motor competence, and these associations may be mediated by social support and self-perceptions. Improving children's motor competence through school-based physical activity interventions may therefore be a mechanism for promoting positive mental health through psychosocial factors. Coproduction provides opportunities to participate in intervention development processes, thereby ensuring that specific needs of stakeholders are targeted. The shared stakeholder ownership of the process provides a context-sensitive basis for acceptable interventions with increased likelihood of them being effectively implemented and resulting in positive outcomes. This presentation describes phase 1 of the Move Well, Feel Good study, which aimed to co-produce and evaluate the feasibility of a primary school physical activity intervention to improve children's motor competence and mental health. Methods Five primary schools were recruited from a low socioeconomic status community in northwest England. From these schools, stakeholder groups were formed consisting of class teachers, school leaders, physical activity specialists, and children (aged 8-9 years). Stakeholders worked in single and multiple stakeholder groups through a 6-stage process aligned to the Double Diamond Design Approach by employing divergent and convergent thinking processes to discover, define, develop, and deliver a solution to the 'problems' of how best to improve children's motor competence and mental health, and how best to facilitate real-world school context implementation of the intervention. Through this process the child and adult stakeholders worked separately in workshops and engaged in additional learning and consensus activities. The adult stakeholder co-production workshops were informed by the children's views and current research evidence. Multiplestakeholder groups worked collaboratively to develop intervention ideas, which were presented, critiqued, and refined in alignment with the TIDieR checklist.

Results
In the final stage of the process the research team presented the final co-produced interventions back to the stakeholders and a consensus vote was taken to decide which intervention would be implemented in the phase 2 feasibility trial in September 2022.

Conclusions
School stakeholders' participation in intervention co-production ensures their ownership of the finalised programme, which may be important for subsequent implementation and engagement. Keywords: Children, stakeholders, motor competence, mental health, participatory citation ID: ckac093.032 The Walking In ScHools (WISH) study: and evaluation of a peer-led schoolwalking intervention in adolescent girls from to fully-powered trial

Background
Walking interventions, delivered within the school setting, have the potential to increase physical activity (PA) in adolescents. Previous research has shown that walking is an acceptable form of PA for adolescent girls, and that walking interventions may be effective at increasing PA in this group. Findings from the Walking In ScHools (WISH) pilot study (n199 female participants) found the intervention was effective in increasing light intensity PA in adolescent girls, but further research is needed to examine the effects of walking on overall PA and the role of peer leaders in delivering school-based interventions. The present study aims to build upon this pilot work and evaluate the effectiveness of a novel, low-cost, peer-led school-based walking intervention, delivered across the school year, at increasing accelerometer-measured PA levels of adolescent girls.

Methods
The WISH study is a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial targeting adolescent girls (aged 12-14 years) within the post-primary school setting. Data will be collected at four timepoints, baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and 13 months post-baseline. Following baseline data collection, schools were randomly allocated to intervention (n = 9) or control (n = 9). In intervention schools, older pupils (aged 15-18 years) were trained as walk leaders and led the younger girls in 10-15min walks before school, at break, and during lunch, across the school year (20-22 weeks). The primary outcome measure is accelerometer-measured total PA (post-intervention) and secondary outcomes include anthropometry measures, and wellbeing. Results Some 590 participants (mean(SD) age 12.6(0.64)years) were recruited from 18 schools across Northern Ireland (n = 9) and the Border region of the Republic of Ireland (n9). Within the intervention schools, 149 walk leaders were trained. At baseline (n = 535), mean(SD) time spent in moderate to vigorous PA