Preschool teachers intention to organize physical activity: an application of the norm activation model

Early childhood physical development relies heavily on the structured opportunities provided by educators within early learning environments. While international health guidelines emphasize the critical need for regular physical activity to support motor skills, cognitive function, and long-term health habits in young children, significant gaps remain in daily implementation. Many preschool settings continue to experience high levels of sedentary behavior, prompting researchers and educational policymakers to re-evaluate the underlying drivers of teachers’ instructional decisions. A recent empirical study published in Frontiers in Psychology addresses this gap by examining how a teacher’s personal sense of moral obligation and responsibility dictates their willingness to integrate physical activity into daily preschool routines.

Theoretical Framework and Study Design

Led by researchers examining early childhood educational practices, the study applied the Norm Activation Model (NAM)—originally formulated by psychologist Shalom Schwartz—to understand the psychological mechanisms driving teachers’ intentions. Traditionally utilized to explain prosocial and responsibility-oriented behaviors, NAM was adapted in this context to explore how educators process the consequences of insufficient childhood physical activity.

The investigation was conducted between September and November 2025 utilizing a cross-sectional online survey methodology. Researchers gathered data from 582 validly responding, in-service preschool teachers across multiple provinces and cities in China. Recruitment was executed using convenience sampling via professional kindergarten networks and digital educator forums. To maintain data integrity, rigorous screening procedures removed 136 incomplete or inconsistent questionnaires from an initial pool of 718 submissions, yielding an effective response rate of 81.1%.

Participant demographics aligned closely with the broader national workforce composition in early childhood education. Women comprised 91.1% of the cohort (530 participants), while male educators accounted for 8.9% (52 participants). Regarding professional tenure, the largest segment of respondents possessed between two and five years of teaching experience (39.3%), followed by those with six to ten years (26.8%), under one year (18.0%), and eleven or more years (15.8%). Furthermore, 42.8% of participants reported prior academic coursework related to preschool physical education, and 38.7% indicated that their current kindergarten employed at least one full-time physical education specialist. Ethical approval for the protocol was granted by the Sports Science Experiment Ethics Committee of Beijing Sport University under approval number 2026024H.

Structural Modeling and Core Findings

Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were deployed to test the psychometric properties of the measurement instruments and evaluate the structural hypotheses. The survey measured four core constructs through a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree): awareness of consequences (AC), ascription of responsibility (AR), personal norms (PN), and behavioral intention (BI).

The final partial mediation model demonstrated an exceptional statistical fit, characterized by a chi-square to degrees-of-freedom ratio of 1.043 ($chi^2 = 119.984, df = 115, p = 0.357$), a comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.999, a Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) of 0.999, and a root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of 0.009.

The analytical breakdown confirmed all primary hypotheses regarding the sequential normative chain:

• Awareness of Consequences to Ascription of Responsibility: Educators who acknowledged the developmental risks of inadequate physical activity were significantly more likely to attribute responsibility for addressing those risks to themselves ($beta = 0.522, p < 0.001$).
• Ascription of Responsibility to Personal Norms: Recognizing personal accountability strongly correlated with a heightened sense of internal moral obligation to act ($beta = 0.617, p < 0.001$).
• Personal Norms to Behavioral Intention: Personal norms emerged as the strongest direct predictor of a teacher’s intention to organize physical activity ($beta = 0.727, p < 0.001$).

Additionally, awareness of consequences exerted a direct positive association with behavioral intention ($beta = 0.173, p < 0.001$). Bias-corrected bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples confirmed that ascription of responsibility and personal norms acted as significant sequential mediators, yielding a standardized sequential indirect association of 0.234 (95% CI [0.188, 0.282]). Overall, the structural model successfully accounted for 27.3% of the variance in ascription of responsibility, 38.0% of the variance in personal norms, and an expansive 64.0% of the variance in behavioral intention.

Implications for Educational Policy and Teacher Training

The study’s findings shift the academic discourse surrounding early childhood physical education away from purely environmental and organizational constraints—such as facility size, scheduling conflicts, and staff shortages—toward the internal normative architectures of educators. While institutional barriers undeniably restrict physical activity provision, the data suggest that an educator’s intention to prioritize movement is fundamentally rooted in perceived personal duty and moral obligation.

Experts analyzing the implications of the research emphasize that professional development initiatives must transcend traditional competence-based instruction. Simply training teachers on how to execute physical activities is insufficient if educators do not internalize the responsibility for combating sedentary behavior within their classrooms. Initial teacher education curricula and continuing professional development programs must explicitly link the biological and cognitive consequences of physical inactivity to clear professional expectations, thereby fostering stronger personal norms among practitioners.

At the same time, researchers caution that intention does not automatically equate to unhindered practical execution. Structural realities—including heavy workloads, safety mandates, administrative pressures, and rigid curricular demands—continue to limit daily physical activity execution. Consequently, systemic interventions must pair psychological and normative encouragement with tangible administrative support, ensuring that teachers are given the time, space, and institutional backing necessary to translate their intentions into daily classroom routines.