Comparing the Impacts of Sports and Formal Uniforms on School Students

The final session at the ACSPRI 2024 conference starts with Carly Gardner, whose focus is on the impact of form school uniform policies on physical activities in school kids. Physical activity is critically important in improving health and protecting against chronic diseases, but school uniforms are often very formal and restrict movement; some schools therefore allow kids to wear their sports uniforms at least one day per week, and there may be an argument to use these as everyday uniforms.

From a first survey, 62% of school students surveyed would support this approach, but further research is required to examine possible impacts, not least also on specific vulnerable populations of school children. This study used a pragmatic qualitative approach to further explore this, working with schools that implemented a daily sports uniform policy and recruiting grade 6 students (with their parents’ consent) and their teachers – a total of 13 students and two teachers from two schools participated in focus groups for the project.

The focus groups were designed to be appropriate to the age group of the students, and involved fun activities; strong support for the everyday sports uniform policy emerged immediately from this process. This was followed by further activities to explore the underlying reasons for this support. A third section of the focus groups focussed specifically on female students wearing the formal girls uniform, and explored their reasons for disliking that uniform.

Further interviews with teachers managed to collect their perspectives, and provided considerable further breath and background, and the combined datasets were then analysed further. It was clear that the sports uniform was strongly accepted and preferred, while formal uniforms are still seen as the ‘norm’ in school dress – and insights from teachers were especially useful for identifying barriers to a broader acceptance of sports uniforms in school settings.