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Educating the Student Body
tion and program content (Beets et al., 2009). However, a meta-analysis by 
Beets and colleagues (2009) found that after-school settings hold considerable 
promise for increasing physical activity in youth and that strategies designed 
to increase physical activity in these settings should include policies targeting 
staff training and ongoing technical support (Beets et al., 2012b).
Impact on Other Outcomes
Weight and body mass index Policies promoting sports in schools may 
help curb the childhood obesity epidemic. Students who participate in sports 
are less likely to be overweight or obese than those who do not participate 
(Salbe et al., 2002; Levin et al., 2003; Menschik et al., 2008; Drake, 2012). 
Involvement in sports also has been shown to improve dietary behaviors 
(French et al., 1994; Harrison and Narayan, 2003; Coleman et al., 2008). 
While it is intuitive that increasing physical activity through after-school 
programs would have a positive impact on weight status, there is no con-
clusive evidence of a temporal effect. Research does show, however, that 
the weight status of youth is an important moderator of physical activity 
in after-school settings. Trost and colleagues (2001, 2008a) found that 
overweight students enrolled in an after-school program were substantially 
less active than their nonoverweight counterparts during organized outdoor 
activities. More research is needed to understand the activity preferences of 
overweight children attending after-school programs.