Scientific Contributions of the Children’s Physical Activity Research Group

The Children’s Physical Activity Research Group (CPARG) at the University of South Carolina (USC) is an interdisciplinary research team that is based in the Arnold School of Public Health’s Department of Exercise Science. The group is comprised of faculty investigators, staff, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. Faculty investigators are drawn from multiple academic units across the USC campus and from a number of other institutions. The members of the team bring diverse areas of expertise, but they share a common interest in physical activity in children and youth. The research activities of CPARG are directed by Russell R. Pate, Ph.D., a Professor of Exercise Science at USC. The research team that is currently configured as CPARG had its origin in the early 1990’s when Pate brought together a group of investigators to pursue studies on promotion of physical activity in youth. Initially, the group was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association. In 1993 the group received its first grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and since then CPARG has been funded continuously by NIH to undertake a series of studies addressing a wide range of issues related to physical activity in young people. As stated on the group’s website, the purpose of CPARG is to expand the body of knowledge on physical activity and its promotion in children and adolescents and to generate the knowledge needed to design and implement effective public health policies. The group’s research interests include measurement of physical activity in children and adolescents, interventions to increase physical activity in young people, influences on physical activity behavior during childhood and adolescence, relationships between physical activity and other health parameters in youth, surveillance of physical activity in populations of young people, and the impact of physical activity on body weight status in youth. In 2014, Dr. Pate was recognized by the South Carolina Academy of Science with its Excellence in Scientific Research and Excellence in Scientific Awareness Awards. These awards provide an opportunity to reflect on the history of the research team that has supported Pate’s work. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to summarize the products of the research conducted by CPARG since the mid-1990’s. The work will be reviewed in categories corresponding closely to the group’s areas of interest. Numerous collaborators have contributed to the work of CPARG, and in Table 1 we list and acknowledge the important contributions of those persons. Measurement of Physical Activity in Children