Making a municipal adolescent fitness initiative actionable: A practitioner-informed grounded process model

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This study examines how such initiatives become actionable under resource constraints and competing academic pressures. Methods Using a qualitative longitudinal design, we analyzed a three-year (2021–2023) municipal fitness initiative in China through semi-structured interviews with practitioners across the governance chain and supplementary policy documents. Results Task-based cognition emerged as the core category, a governance-mediated interpretive frame converting abstract fitness targets into specific, verifiable tasks. Actionability unfolded through translation, coupling, contextual activation, and temporal stabilization, conditioned by a compliance dilemma: dense monitoring erodes legitimacy and autonomy, prompting performative adherence over durable routines. Conclusions Findings specify how measurement infrastructures both build capability and generate surveillance, informing governance designs that foster participation without coercive compliance. Guided by constructivist grounded theory, we propose a process model linking governance instruments to routine formation. Health governance Policy enactment Accountability Youth sport participation Grounded theory Figures Figure 1 Introduction Children and adolescent physical health has become a prominent governance concern as sedentary lifestyles, widening fitness disparities, and rising overweight and obesity intersect with academic pressure and expanded screen time [ 1 – 2 ]. International organisations now treat youth fitness as cross-sector responsibility spanning education systems, public health agendas, and community provision rather than bounded school lessons or short-term campaigns [ 3 – 5 ]. In China, national surveillance and policy directives have elevated student health within education governance, while performance arrangements have encouraged municipalities to launch coordinated fitness initiatives [ 6 – 7 ]. The municipal level matters because policy targets, resources, and inspection routines become operational demands for schools and cross-sector coordination becomes concrete [ 8 ]. Yet a persistent implementation problem remains. Targets and inputs do not reliably translate into stable routines organising daily life across schools, households, and communities [ 9 – 10 ]. The problem is not only compliance but actionability [ 11 ]. Governance initiatives should yield activities that schools can schedule, teachers supervise, and families support when time, space, and attention remain scarce [ 9 , 12 – 13 ]. They must operate within unequal capacity and competing priorities, particularly where high-stakes examinations shape institutional focus and household strategies [ 11 , 14 – 15 ]. Research therefore needs explanations of how municipal initiatives become actionable in practice and why they produce uneven routine formation. Existing literature offers partial leverage but seldom explains how governance instruments become embedded in routine practice. Policy implementation research shows organisational responses rarely follow formal design; translation depends on interpretation, prioritisation, and local capacity [ 10 , 14 , 16 – 19 ]. Organisational research emphasises discretion shaping how frontline actors reconcile policy demands with limited resources and competing obligations [ 20 – 22 ]. Practice-oriented scholars suggest sustained activity depends on arrangements making participation feasible and legitimate—time allocation, space access, equipment, supervision, and shared understandings of educational value [ 23 – 24 ]. Accountability research adds that metrics and inspection routines can secure attention yet redirect effort toward documentation and display, privileging what is measurable over what changes participation [ 25 ]. These literatures identify implementation elements but remain adjacent, leaving unclear how targets, reporting, and resources reshape conditions supporting participation across contexts [ 10 , 14 ]. The central gap concerns process explanation linking governance instruments to actionability. Research often catalogues facilitators and barriers, academic pressure, facilities, parental support, community provision [ 9 – 10 , 14 , 20 ]. but less often specifies how municipal coordination reorganises schedules, redistributes responsibility, and reshapes what actors recognise as legitimate participation [ 8 ]. Under new policy, authorities and schools negotiate boundaries between autonomy and coordination when standardisation meets curriculum demands, staffing constraints, safety obligations, and parental expectations [ 8 , 10 , 16 – 17 , 23 ]. Decisions arise about monitoring protected activity time, producing performative compliance through events and records satisfying evaluation without extensive routine change [ 9 , 11 – 12 , 14 , 22 ], and extending responsibility beyond schools when unequal household resources shape participation and potentially reproduce inequality [ 14 , 25 ]. Outcomes depend on how actors interpret responsibility, negotiate legitimacy, and manage friction points where educational hierarchies intersect with health objectives[ 26 ]. What remains missing is a grounded account specifying mechanisms and conditions through which municipal initiatives become doable and durable. This study uses constructivist grounded theory to develop a process model of how municipal adolescent fitness initiatives become actionable [ 27 ]. It aims to generate integrated explanation grounded in practitioner accounts of coordination under institutional constraint [ 28 ]. Concepts from policy enactment, organisational discretion, practice organisation, and accountability inform initial analytic orientation as sensitising concepts [ 29 – 30 ], preserving openness to categories arising from the field, including those challenging assumptions about coordination, compliance, and meaningful participation [ 31 ]. The analysis treats implementation as organisational work through which actors define problems, allocate responsibility, and assemble routines coexisting with academic priorities and limited capacity [ 4 ]. It treats governance as a process shaping what actors recognise as legitimate activity and reasonable burden [ 32 ]. By focusing on actionability, the study links governance instruments to routine formation while avoiding assumptions that more coordination, resources, or tighter measurement necessarily produce sustained participation. The paper addresses two questions. How do practitioners describe processes through which a municipal fitness initiative becomes actionable across school, household, and community domains? What process model specifies mechanisms, contextual triggers, and friction points shaping translation and routine formation under institutional constraints? The study contributes to sociological debates on governance and health-related practices in education by specifying how municipal targets, inspections, and reporting intersect with discretionary practice inside schools [ 1 , 11 ]. The resulting model offers a basis for research on municipal health governance and provides implications for policy design seeking durable participation without burdens inviting performative responses. Methods Research design and ethics This study adopted a qualitative longitudinal case study design that examined a municipal adolescent fitness governance initiative implemented in Haitong (pseudonym) from 2021 to 2023. The analysis drew on constructivist grounded theory procedures to develop an implementation mechanism model grounded in practitioner accounts, with interviews as the primary evidence base [ 27 ]. This study obtained ethical approval from the first author’s university ethics committee (SSHRE23-APP03-FED). Participants provided written informed consent before data collection. Participants and sampling The study used purposive sampling [ 33 ] to recruit practitioners who engage in the initiative implementation. The sample comprised 15 participants drawn from positions in the governance chain, including municipal or district education administrators, school principals, physical educators, a community sport coordinator and a parent representative. Eligibility required direct involvement in the initiative from 2021 to 2023, capacity to describe how municipal requirements translated into school routines and home and community coordination, and substantial professional experience in relevant roles. Most participants reported more than 16 years of related experience. Table 1 summarises participant characteristics by role category, governance level, and years in role. Table 1 Participants’ demographic information. Pseudonym Position School level Gender Age at interview Years of service Interview date Length of interviews David Municipal official N/A Male 44 21 2023‑12‑21 110 minutes Benjamin District official N/A Male 45 20 2023‑05‑18 97 minutes Ethan Principal Primary Male 49 26 2023-11-01 65 minutes Leo Principal Middle Male 48 25 2023‑11‑03 95 minutes Jonathan Principal Middle Male 45 21 2023‑11‑04 100 minutes Noah Principal Primary Male 53 30 2023-12-05 72 minutes Kai Vice-principal Primary Male 53 30 2023‑11‑06 77 minutes Robert Head of physical education Primary and middle Male 58 34 2023-11-05 106 minutes Lisa Physical education teacher Middle Female 52 29 2023‑05‑12 86 minutes Charles Physical education teacher Primary Male 51 28 2023-11-02 68 minutes Nicholas Homeroom teacher Middle Male 41 16 2023‑03‑08 86 minutes Frank Homeroom teacher Middle Male 50 27 2023-04-02 65 minutes John Community sports coordinator Primary Male 59 35 2023‑05‑08 88 minutes Emma Parent representative Primary Female 48 N/A 2023‑03‑15 80 minutes Context Haitong is a prefecture-level city in southern China. The initiative began after provincial spot checks in 2020 showed that the city did not reach the benchmark for student health-related physical fitness performance, that the fitness test includes cardiovascular fitness, muscular fitness, speed, and flexibility. The municipal education authority then launched a campaign that aimed to improve student fitness through coordinated action across education administration, schools, families, and community partners. It used several governance instruments, including tiered responsibility agreements that specified obligations across administrative levels, school-specific improvement, and student-specific exercise prescriptions. Schools also adopted measures that ensured curriculum time for physical education lessons, organised daily physical activity, and expanded participation through events and competitions. The initiative further allows community access to school venues under local safety protocols. Provincial fitness performance improved during the three-year initiative. These indicators serve to characterise the policy environment and performance pressures that structured implementation, they do not support causal claims about programme effects. Data collection and data management The study conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews in conference rooms at participants’ workplaces. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interview examined how implementation became feasible and sustained in practice. It asked participants to describe target setting and monitoring, translation of fitness goals into schedulable and teachable school routines, organisation of home-school-community coordination, responses to barriers and resistance, unintended effects, and strategies that aimed to maintain change over time. To contextualise interview accounts, the research team compiled supplementary materials that participants referenced and that were available for research use, the semi-structured interview guide used in this study is provided as Supplementary File 1. These included municipal notices and documents, agreements, school plans, exercise prescription templates, meeting records, mobilisation communications, and reports. Selected quotations of interviews and excerpts were translated from Chinese to English and checked translations against the original text to preserve meaning and institutional terminology. Data analysis The analysis used NVivo 20 (Lumivero, Denver, CO) and followed constructivist grounded theory procedures [ 27 ]. Open coding was conducted to attend closely to actions, interpretations, and conditions in each segment of text and that remained near participants’ terms where possible. Axial coding then consolidated recurrent and analytically productive codes into categories. Selective coding specified relationships among categories, with attention to sequencing and conditionality, and supported development of a process model that linked governance instruments to actionability and routine formation. Constant comparison is used across participant roles, organisational levels, and references to different phases of the initiative. Analytic memos documented category development, decision points, and model revisions. Trustworthiness Credibility relied on transcript checking, triangulation across interviews and supplementary materials, and negative case analysis [ 33 ]. Dependability used an audit trail and team-based coding. Confirmability drew on reflexive memos, peer debriefing, and researcher role clarification. Transferability was supported through thick description of governance architecture and explicit boundary conditions: Haitong's strong administrative capacity and resource access may limit applicability to constrained settings. Results We used a railway metaphor to develop a practitioner-informed process model of actionability (see Fig. 1 ) in which task-based cognition emerged as the core category linking governance instruments (targets, responsibility agreements, inspections, and reporting routines) to routinised student physical activity. Across accounts, implementation unfolded through interlinked mechanisms of translation, whereby fitness targets were rendered into specific, checkable tasks; coupling, whereby a responsibility chain and activity network aligned accountability with participation opportunities; contextual activation, whereby shared spaces and digital platforms increased salience and coordination across school-home-community settings; and temporal stabilisation, whereby protected time, staged progression, and partner networks supported repetition and habit formation. The analysis also surfaced a cross-cutting compliance dilemma. When multi-actor coordination accumulated into dense monitoring, it could erode perceived legitimacy and elicit performative adherence rather than durable routine formation. Task-based cognition as a translation mechanism Participants described a recurrent translation mechanism through which municipal fitness targets and assessment expectations were rendered actionable in everyday settings. They reported that students, supported by teachers and parents, interpret policy goals as specific, checkable, and staged tasks, rather than as diffuse aspirations. We label this interpretive frame task-based cognition, which is a practical way of making fitness improvement doable by attaching it to observable actions, short feedback loops, and incremental progression. Practitioners used measurement infrastructures, fitness-test components embedded into routine lessons, mock tests, and exercise-prescription templates, to make deficits legible and to specify next steps. Further, they reframed participation as socially valued such as belonging, recognition, parent-child connection, so that tasks felt worth doing rather than merely required. Principals emphasised translation depended less on episodic mobilisation than on redesigning instruction and participation platforms so that activity became repeatable and evaluable within the school day, as Leo noted: The school takes the responsibility to cultivate students’ interest in sports… The focus must be the classroom. We reformed physical education instruction so that students enjoy the lessons, … movement …, and ensure that students master at least two sports… Frank, a homeroom teacher, likewise described how routine design absorbed constraints (time, weather, uneven competence) by adapting rules and creating indoor alternatives, thereby stabilising participation as a daily accomplishment rather than an occasional event: We extended recess to 20 minutes…, adjusted basketball rules for lower grades…, guaranteed an uninterrupted daily 1,600 metres run, and developed nine sets of desk‑based and indoor exercises for rainy days. Seemingly minor scheduling and organisational adjustments also reshaped the social experience of mandated activity. Nicolas, another homeroom teacher, described replacing solitary running with small-group formats that redistributed responsibility to peers and converted monitoring into mutual encouragement: Now they run in groups of four…, rotate the role of pace‑setter… The kids remind each other to keep going… It becomes their thing, not just a school thing. Together, these processes enabled students to recognise tasks, anticipate improvement, and justify participation in everyday terms, thereby linking municipal governance instruments to routine formation in schools and, where parents joined in, at home. Coupling through a responsibility chain and an activity network Participants indicated that making the initiative actionable required a coupling of accountability and opportunity infrastructure. Practitioners described a responsibility chain that distributed obligations across administrative tiers and schools, and an activity network that provided recurring and attractive participation occasions. Either component on its own was portrayed as responsibility without opportunities invited compliance theatre, whereas opportunities without responsibility were readily displaced by timetable crowding and fluctuating leadership attention. The responsibility chain was organised through signed responsibility agreements, top-leader accountability, school visits, and school-level implementation plans. Participants framed these instruments as clarifying who should act, what should be delivered, and how progress will be monitored, and crucially, as protecting physical education time by increasing the organisational costs of non-compliance under exam-oriented pressures. In parallel, the activity network consisted of tiered team structures, leagues, competitions, and school sport events that widened entry points and allocated visible roles to students. As Robert, the head of physical education, put it: " Schools need to build multi‑level competition platforms, establish a tiered school team system, and create incentive mechanisms that cover all grades. This ensures that every student can find a sense of belonging and achievement in sports. " Vice-principal, Kai, emphasised that sustaining participation required ongoing adaptation of recess activities and competition rules to keep engagement feasible and motivating: " School leaders must deeply engage… dynamically adjusting recess exercise content, innovating competition rules… We integrate… physical literacy and skills into these activities. " David, a municipal official, described deliberate alignment of inspection routines with on-the-ground activity to reduce paperwork-oriented compliance: " Now we combine the inspection with a site visit during a league game period… We don’t just ask them for a plan, we watch whether the kids are on the courts… The accountability pulls the activities into existence, and the activities make the accountability real. " Across interviews, coupling functioned as an implementation mechanism. Accountability instruments secured attention, time, and staffing, while the activity network translated those obligations into socially meaningful pathways through which students could participate. In this way, coupling operationalised governance demands into routinised school practices rather than episodic mobilisation or purely documentary compliance. Contextual activation through shared spaces and digital platforms This category specifies contextual activation, the situational conditions that made the translated tasks described above salient and practically executable across school, household, and community settings. Shared-space arrangements included opening school venues to community use under local safety protocols and managing access through reservation systems. Participants also described community equipment provision and school-community sport events that extended practice opportunities beyond the school day. These arrangements were not only material supports, but they also signalled municipal endorsement and helped normalise exercise as an ordinary component of local life, thereby strengthening legitimacy for schools and parents operating under academic pressure. Additionally, cultural and digital cues functioned as triggers that attached meaning and coordination to routine activity. Some schools drew on culturally resonant programmes (e.g., campus Wushu) to embed physical activity in narratives of identity and persistence. As Jonathan, a principal, put it: " Physical activity should be given a prominent place and treated as an important part of life. When students are exhausted or feel like they've failed, they can still enjoy engaging in any type of sport. " Digital tools, especially messaging-platform check-ins and photo-sharing, were described as low-friction coordination devices that connected teachers and parents around concrete tasks and made participation socially visible. John, a community sports coordinator, noted that these tools sometimes shifted parental engagement from oversight to celebration: " Within weeks, parents were sharing photos… It became a positive competition… The application wasn't tracking compliance, but it was creating a shared space where physical activity became something to celebrate together. " However, participants also reported a critical conditional variation consistent with the paper’s broader compliance dilemma. When check-ins accumulated across actors and were repurposed for ranking, evaluation, or intensified supervision, the same visibility that facilitated coordination could be experienced as surveillance, undermining autonomy and inviting resistance. Lisa, a physical education teacher, reflected on this boundary: " The tool that was supposed to help has become a source of stress. " Benjamin, a district official, described attempts to preserve a “coordination—not evaluation” frame and to prioritise variety and enjoyment over numeric optimisation: " When principals start using the data to rank classes… it changes the atmosphere… We now emphasise… variety and enjoyment, not just numbers. " Overall, contextual activation operated as a bridge between organisational arrangements and lived participation. When shared spaces and digital cues remained enabling and low friction, they supported routine enactment; when they amplified scrutiny and reduced perceived choice, they risked backlash and performative compliance. Temporal stabilisation through protected time, progression, and partners Participants described temporal stabilisation as the process through which translated and contextually activated tasks became durable routines through repeated enactment. They identified three conditions that supported this shift from episodic participation to habit-like regularity. Protected time was treated as a foundational precondition. Interviewees emphasised norms and timetable arrangements that insulated physical activity from academic encroachment (e.g., extended breaks and mandated daily activity). As Lisa stated, “Physical education classes should not be encroached upon. Students should gain pleasure and a sense of achievement from them ”. Progression referred to deliberate staging of tasks by age and competence, from playful foundational movement to more structured sport-specific learning and, where relevant, personalised exercise prescriptions. Participants presented progression as sustaining engagement by aligning challenge with capability, thereby reducing disengagement associated with repeated failure or boredom. Partner networks, including peer leaders, peer teaching, and family co-participation, were described as the relational infrastructure that made tasks shared rather than solitary. Nicholas recounted how student-leadership arrangements expanded participation and sustained return: " Now we have student‑run clubs during lunch… The older kids teach the younger ones… When students feel they're part of something that peers value, they keep coming back… " Emma, the parent representative, underscored that how adults partnered mattered as much as whether they partnered, distinguishing supportive co-participation from supervisory checking: " Some parents treat fitness tasks as homework to be checked… That creates stress, not support. But when parents join weekend hiking groups… the child sees it as time together, not as inspection. " At the same time, participants noted a conditional risk consistent with the broader compliance dilemma. When partnering shifted toward stringent oversight and verification, it could convert participation into stress-laden, compliance-oriented enactment rather than autonomous routine formation. In sum, stabilisation was described as a governance achievement insofar as protected time made repetition possible, progression kept tasks developmentally viable, and partners supplied encouragement without intensifying surveillance. Compliance dilemma and conditions for durable change Across categories, participants identified a cross-cutting tension that refined the mechanism model. Multi-actor coordination could tip into collusive pressure when delegated responsibilities became mutually reinforcing supervision concentrated on the student. In these accounts, the same infrastructures designed to make participation doable (task specification, monitoring, home-school coordination) could also render it compulsory, surveilled, and psychologically external. Charles, a physical education teacher, captured this instrumentalisation through metaphor: For Xiaolin, skipping rope is just another box to check on the daily schedule, no different from reciting a Tang poem . Robert described how reciprocal demands between schools and families could accumulate into an experience of omnipresent scrutiny: Parents ask us to manage more, we ask parents to supervise more, and in the end, the child feels like the whole world is watching him run alone . These accounts suggest that governance alignment and resource mobilisation did not automatically translate into student commitment. Translation remained contingent on how students experienced the task system, whether tasks communicated competence and meaning or signalled surveillance and obligation. Frank’s classroom evidence illustrated how intensive monitoring could induce performative compliance rather than sustained engagement: " I asked my students to write a fitness log. One of my students wrote: My mom checks my pulse after I run… If my heart rate isn't high enough, she makes me go again… I started running in place in my room, so she'd hear footsteps, then sit down.' The parents think they're being supportive; the kid learns to perform compliance. The activity becomes something you do to satisfy adults, not something you do for yourself. " When students primarily interpreted physical activity through instrumental, compliance-oriented task frames, additional inputs from schools, families, or communities appeared to yield diminishing returns unless they changed the quality of engagement (autonomy, competence, meaning). Protected and non-intrusive time and space functioned as an enabling condition: they allowed partner networks to form organically and helped shift tasks from externally enforced compliance toward internalised routine. Discussion This study explains how a municipal adolescent fitness initiative becomes actionable, developing a practitioner-informed grounded process model linking governance instruments to routine formation across school, home, and community settings. The central finding is that task-based cognition operates as the translational hub converting targets, inspections, reporting routines, and responsibility agreements into specific, checkable, repeatable tasks that can be scheduled, supported, and monitored in school life. Actionability unfolds through translation, contextual activation, and temporal stabilisation. The model specifies a consequential tension: coordination strengthens engagement when building competence and meaning but undermines durability when dense monitoring is experienced as surveillance, eliciting performative compliance rather than routinised participation [ 10 , 34 ]. This contribution moves beyond cataloguing barriers to provide a mechanism-based explanation of when governance designs support durable activity and when they risk compliance without lasting change [ 4 , 10 ]. The findings support a process model in which governance instruments shape school and community conditions, yet effects on student participation are mediated by task-based cognition [ 34 ]. Responsibility instruments and programme resources become behaviourally consequential insofar as converted into daily, checkable tasks [ 35 – 36 ]. Shared spaces and culturally resonant or digital cues activate tasks by increasing salience and feasibility across settings [ 37 ]. Protected time, staged progression, and partner networks stabilise repetition into routine [ 38 – 39 ]. The model specifies reinforcing and countervailing dynamics: early visible progress strengthens perceived competence and legitimacy, supporting continued uptake [ 39 ], whereas dense supervision reconfigures coordination into collusive pressure, undermining autonomy and producing symbolic compliance [ 40 ]. The model extends social-ecological accounts by specifying translation mechanisms through which cross-level inputs become actionable within everyday practice, not only what influences behaviour across levels, but how governance is converted into doable routines. The analysis refines task-based cognition as a governance-mediated interpretive frame. Although aligning with action-planning scholarship in highlighting specificity and cueing [ 41 ], it differs in two respects. Task-based cognition emerged as collective accomplishment co-produced by administrators, schools, families, and students through measurement infrastructures, exercise prescriptions, and event systems rather than individual self-regulatory technique. It is normatively charged because tasks are tied to accountability and evaluation; the same infrastructures operate either as capability-building supports (enhancing competence, belonging, legitimacy) or as surveillance technologies eliciting resistance and performative compliance [ 42 – 43 ]. This duality is consequential for governance accounts: task infrastructures may expand agency or constrain it depending on how monitoring and meaning are configured [ 37 , 42 ]. Practically, durable engagement is more likely when task systems are staged and competence-building while preserving autonomy and meaning [ 38 , 43 ], when accountability couples with accessible participation opportunities rather than paperwork [ 40 ], when contexts provide low-friction triggers (shared spaces, culturally meaningful programmes and digital tools support coordination rather than ranking, and when protected time and space enable repetition and partner networks without coercive oversight. Limitations Several limitations qualify interpretation. Absent student interviews or direct observation, inferences about students' meaning-making derive from practitioner accounts rather than first-person evidence. The single-city case limits transfer to contexts with different administrative capacity, facility access, digital infrastructure, and cultural repertoires. Participants' leadership roles may shape accounts through social desirability or institutional narrative alignment, notwithstanding deviant-case analysis and triangulation. Administrative indicators provide policy context and perceived performance pressure but do not permit causal claims. Future research should foreground student-centred qualitative designs (interviews, diaries, participatory methods) to capture micro-level affect, autonomy, and perceived surveillance; conduct comparative case studies including resource-constrained and rural settings to test boundary conditions; and use mixed-method process evaluations tracking perceived task autonomy, legitimacy, surveillance, and social partnering alongside participation and fitness outcomes over time. Conclusion This study developed a practitioner-informed grounded process model to explain how a municipal adolescent fitness initiative becomes actionable in everyday implementation. In Haitong, governance instruments and resources did not translate directly into student behaviour, their influence operated through task-based cognition, which rendered policy goals into daily, checkable tasks, and through contextual activation and temporal stabilisation, which made these tasks salient, feasible, and repeatable until they became routine. The model also identifies a defining tension. Coordination can protect time and mobilise support, yet it can also become collusive pressure when monitoring intensifies into surveillance and erodes autonomy and meaning, producing symbolic compliance rather than durable engagement. By positioning task-based cognition as a translational hub within a translation-activation-stabilisation cycle, the study offers a mechanism-oriented refinement of social-ecological accounts and practical guidance for designing governance that builds capability and participation without amplifying coercive compliance. Declarations Acknowledgments We would like to thank all participants in this study. Authors’ contributions Cai Zhaojian: Responsible for the collection and analysis of research data and the full text writing of the paper; Siu Ming Choi : Responsible for the conception and expression modification of the thesis outline; Wang Guozhi: Responsible for theoretical support and writing guidance of the research.; Shaocong Zhao: Conceptualization and supervision of study and development and editing of manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript. Funding This work was support by: Fujian Provincial Key Project of Social Sciences-Research on Strategies for Enhancing the Service Capacity of Sports Social Organizations in Fujian Province [Project No.: FJ2024A016], The Collaborative Innovation Platform Project for Functional Exercise Equipment for Children’s Posture Correction in the Fuzhou–Xiamen–Quanzhou National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone [Project No.:2024-P-003], The General Administration of Sport of China Science and Technology Innovation Project [Project No.:24KJCX089], and the 2025 Fujian Provincial Social Science Foundation Project “Research on the Prevention and Treatment Dilemmas and Coping Strategies of Adolescent Scoliosis” [Project No.:FJ2025BF039]. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was approved by the Research Committee of the University of Macau (SSHRE23-APP03-FED). All protocols are carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, participants and/or their parents/guardians provided informed consent, were informed that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time and confirmed their consent for their data to be used in the study. Consent for publication Non applicable. Competing interests The author declares no competing interests. Author details 1 School of Physical Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, China; 2 Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China; 3 Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China. References Cale, L., Harris, J., & Chen, M. H. (2014). Monitoring health, activity and fitness in physical education: Its current and future state of health. 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F., Long, D., Bassler, J., ... & Cottrell, L. (2020). Translating school physical education and activity policies into practice: A case study. Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine , 5 (12), e000132. Economos, C. D., Mueller, M. P., Schultz, N., Gervis, J., Miller, G. F., & Pate, R. R. (2018). Investigating best practices of district-wide physical activity programmatic efforts in US schools–A mixed-methods approach. BMC Public Health , 18 (1), 992. Weatherson, K. A., McKay, R., Gainforth, H. L., & Jung, M. E. (2017). Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a school-based physical activity policy in Canada: Application of the theoretical domains framework. BMC Public Health , 17 (1), 835. Lucas, P. J., Curtis-Tyler, K., Arai, L., Stapley, S., Fagg, J., & Roberts, H. (2014). What works in practice: User and provider perspectives on the acceptability, affordability, implementation, and impact of a family-based intervention for child overweight and obesity delivered at scale. BMC Public Health , 14 (1), 614. Alfrey, L., & O’Connor, J. (2024). Transforming physical education: An analysis of context and resources that support curriculum transformation and enactment. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy , 29 (1), 1-17. Charmaz, K. (2024). Constructing Grounded Theory . Sage Publications. Choi, S. M., Sum, K. W. R., Wallhead, T. L., Leung, F. L. E., Ha, S. C. A., & Sit, H. P. C. (2022). Operationalizing physical literacy through sport education in a university physical education program. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy , 27 (6), 591-607. Evans, J., & Davies, B. (2010). Family, class and embodiment: Why school physical education makes so little difference to post‐school participation patterns in physical activity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education , 23 (7), 765-784. Penney, D. (2013). Points of tension and possibility: Boundaries in and of physical education. Sport, Education and Society , 18 (1), 6-20. Qin, L., Ho, W. K. Y., Xu, B., & Khoo, S. (2025). Developing a model of quality physical education in the Chinese context: a grounded theory investigation of secondary school physical education teachers’ perceptions. Frontiers in Public Health , 13 , 1569222. Liu, H., Yin, Z., Jiang, J., Guo, Z., & Liu, B. (2024). Developing a model of physical education teachers’ health service competence in China: Based on the grounded theory technical approach. BMC Public Health , 24 (1), 3506. Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice . Sage Publications. Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How Schools Do Policy: Policy Enactments in Secondary Schools . Routledge. Alfrey, L., O'Connor, J., & Jeanes, R. (2017). Teachers as policy actors: Co-creating and enacting critical inquiry in secondary health and physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy , 22 (2), 107-120. Yang, J., Qiu, C., Du, X., Landi, D., & Kirk, D. (2026). From policy ambition to classroom practice: Health education in China’s physical education and health curriculum reform. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy , 1-20. Aldous, D., Evans, V., & Penney, D. (2022). Curriculum reform in Wales: Physical education teacher educators' negotiation of policy positions. The Curriculum Journal , 33 (3), 495-514. Jess, M., McEvilly, N., & Carse, N. (2017). Moving primary physical education forward: start at the beginning. Education 3-13 , 45 (5), 645-657. Lambert, K., Alfrey, L., O’Connor, J., & Penney, D. (2021). Artefacts and influence in curriculum policy enactment: Processes, products and policy work in curriculum reform. European Physical Education Review , 27 (2), 258-277. Uerpairojkit, T. (2025). The invisible costs of education reform: Understanding teacher deprofessionalisation in Thailand. British Educational Research Journal . Grogan, M., MacPhail, A., Costa, J., & O'Keeffe, B. (2025). A content map analysis of the national policy landscape in physical education, physical activity and youth sport in Ireland. Sport, Education and Society , 1-16. Scanlon, D., Lorusso, J., & Viczko, M. (2024). Understanding (and extending) the conceptual boundaries of policy research in physical education: A scoping review. European Physical Education Review , 30 (3), 414-434. Tolgfors, B., Caldeborg, A., Jansson, K., Mustell, J., Sjödin, K., & Barker, D. (2025). Holistic assessment in school physical education: ‘Seeing the whole picture with our trained eye’. European Physical Education Review , 1356336X251380095. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Appendix1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 15 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 13 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 25 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 24 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 24 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9160731","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":626599785,"identity":"e4e78a9c-9ac2-429b-aa88-1dd0b17f14e7","order_by":0,"name":"Zhaojian Cai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Soochow University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhaojian","middleName":"","lastName":"Cai","suffix":""},{"id":626599786,"identity":"da4c9352-d6e5-466e-bcf1-ff421615af03","order_by":1,"name":"Siu Ming Choi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAqklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNgYGAxswS4IULWkka2E4TIIW+WmHnz34UHA+cW0D88HbPAzb5AhqMbidZm44w+B24rYDbMnWPAy3jQlrkc5hk+YBa+ExkwZqSWwg6LDZYC3ngFr4vxGnheE2WMsBkC1sxGkB+sVMcoZBsvG2w2zGlnMMiPCL/OzkZxIf/tjJbjve/PDGm4rbhEMMAZjBlpKgYRSMglEwCkYBbgAAKJw3ZKKCTj4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Macau","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Siu","middleName":"Ming","lastName":"Choi","suffix":""},{"id":626599787,"identity":"976dfc7d-8d27-43fa-b3f5-22fa94420f70","order_by":2,"name":"Guozhi Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Soochow University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guozhi","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":626599788,"identity":"c87daac7-e9e1-42b0-a3f7-a0b05207932f","order_by":3,"name":"Shaocong Zhao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xiamen University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shaocong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-18 14:53:22","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160731/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160731/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":107509726,"identity":"e0655fcb-ce97-4f31-9943-f356640e7246","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 07:32:41","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":465349,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eRailway metaphor for the practitioner-informed process model of actionability.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9160731/v1/6c9387ac3a524c724a511186.png"},{"id":107710362,"identity":"bb9de7a0-beb7-4336-acd7-abaf1ac1f78c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-24 09:40:31","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":791506,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9160731/v1/196813fd-d0d2-4a66-baa0-9df603dad53d.pdf"},{"id":107706055,"identity":"50744306-2822-4508-8381-f30dc686f02c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-24 09:17:15","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":17197,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Appendix1.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9160731/v1/c5071664a72ee2ad5c36d73e.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Making a municipal adolescent fitness initiative actionable: A practitioner-informed grounded process model","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eChildren and adolescent physical health has become a prominent governance concern as sedentary lifestyles, widening fitness disparities, and rising overweight and obesity intersect with academic pressure and expanded screen time [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e]. International organisations now treat youth fitness as cross-sector responsibility spanning education systems, public health agendas, and community provision rather than bounded school lessons or short-term campaigns [\u003cspan additionalcitationids=\"CR4\" citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e]. In China, national surveillance and policy directives have elevated student health within education governance, while performance arrangements have encouraged municipalities to launch coordinated fitness initiatives [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e]. The municipal level matters because policy targets, resources, and inspection routines become operational demands for schools and cross-sector coordination becomes concrete [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e]. Yet a persistent implementation problem remains. Targets and inputs do not reliably translate into stable routines organising daily life across schools, households, and communities [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e]. The problem is not only compliance but actionability [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e]. Governance initiatives should yield activities that schools can schedule, teachers supervise, and families support when time, space, and attention remain scarce [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e12\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e13\u003c/span\u003e]. They must operate within unequal capacity and competing priorities, particularly where high-stakes examinations shape institutional focus and household strategies [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e15\u003c/span\u003e]. Research therefore needs explanations of how municipal initiatives become actionable in practice and why they produce uneven routine formation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eExisting literature offers partial leverage but seldom explains how governance instruments become embedded in routine practice. Policy implementation research shows organisational responses rarely follow formal design; translation depends on interpretation, prioritisation, and local capacity [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan additionalcitationids=\"CR17 CR18\" citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e16\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e19\u003c/span\u003e]. Organisational research emphasises discretion shaping how frontline actors reconcile policy demands with limited resources and competing obligations [\u003cspan additionalcitationids=\"CR21\" citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e22\u003c/span\u003e]. Practice-oriented scholars suggest sustained activity depends on arrangements making participation feasible and legitimate\u0026mdash;time allocation, space access, equipment, supervision, and shared understandings of educational value [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e23\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e24\u003c/span\u003e]. Accountability research adds that metrics and inspection routines can secure attention yet redirect effort toward documentation and display, privileging what is measurable over what changes participation [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e25\u003c/span\u003e]. These literatures identify implementation elements but remain adjacent, leaving unclear how targets, reporting, and resources reshape conditions supporting participation across contexts [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe central gap concerns process explanation linking governance instruments to actionability. Research often catalogues facilitators and barriers, academic pressure, facilities, parental support, community provision [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e]. but less often specifies how municipal coordination reorganises schedules, redistributes responsibility, and reshapes what actors recognise as legitimate participation [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e]. Under new policy, authorities and schools negotiate boundaries between autonomy and coordination when standardisation meets curriculum demands, staffing constraints, safety obligations, and parental expectations [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e16\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e17\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e23\u003c/span\u003e]. Decisions arise about monitoring protected activity time, producing performative compliance through events and records satisfying evaluation without extensive routine change [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e12\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e22\u003c/span\u003e], and extending responsibility beyond schools when unequal household resources shape participation and potentially reproduce inequality [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e25\u003c/span\u003e]. Outcomes depend on how actors interpret responsibility, negotiate legitimacy, and manage friction points where educational hierarchies intersect with health objectives[\u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e26\u003c/span\u003e]. What remains missing is a grounded account specifying mechanisms and conditions through which municipal initiatives become doable and durable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study uses constructivist grounded theory to develop a process model of how municipal adolescent fitness initiatives become actionable [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e]. It aims to generate integrated explanation grounded in practitioner accounts of coordination under institutional constraint [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e28\u003c/span\u003e]. Concepts from policy enactment, organisational discretion, practice organisation, and accountability inform initial analytic orientation as sensitising concepts [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e29\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e30\u003c/span\u003e], preserving openness to categories arising from the field, including those challenging assumptions about coordination, compliance, and meaningful participation [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e31\u003c/span\u003e]. The analysis treats implementation as organisational work through which actors define problems, allocate responsibility, and assemble routines coexisting with academic priorities and limited capacity [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e]. It treats governance as a process shaping what actors recognise as legitimate activity and reasonable burden [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e32\u003c/span\u003e]. By focusing on actionability, the study links governance instruments to routine formation while avoiding assumptions that more coordination, resources, or tighter measurement necessarily produce sustained participation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe paper addresses two questions. How do practitioners describe processes through which a municipal fitness initiative becomes actionable across school, household, and community domains? What process model specifies mechanisms, contextual triggers, and friction points shaping translation and routine formation under institutional constraints? The study contributes to sociological debates on governance and health-related practices in education by specifying how municipal targets, inspections, and reporting intersect with discretionary practice inside schools [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e]. The resulting model offers a basis for research on municipal health governance and provides implications for policy design seeking durable participation without burdens inviting performative responses.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eResearch design and ethics\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study adopted a qualitative longitudinal case study design that examined a municipal adolescent fitness governance initiative implemented in Haitong (pseudonym) from 2021 to 2023. The analysis drew on constructivist grounded theory procedures to develop an implementation mechanism model grounded in practitioner accounts, with interviews as the primary evidence base [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e]. This study obtained ethical approval from the first author\u0026rsquo;s university ethics committee (SSHRE23-APP03-FED). Participants provided written informed consent before data collection.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eParticipants and sampling\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe study used purposive sampling [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e33\u003c/span\u003e] to recruit practitioners who engage in the initiative implementation. The sample comprised 15 participants drawn from positions in the governance chain, including municipal or district education administrators, school principals, physical educators, a community sport coordinator and a parent representative. Eligibility required direct involvement in the initiative from 2021 to 2023, capacity to describe how municipal requirements translated into school routines and home and community coordination, and substantial professional experience in relevant roles. Most participants reported more than 16 years of related experience. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e summarises participant characteristics by role category, governance level, and years in role.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eParticipants\u0026rsquo; demographic information.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"10\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c10\" colnum=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePseudonym\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePosition\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSchool level\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGender\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAge at interview\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYears of service\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eInterview date\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLength of interviews\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDavid\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMunicipal official\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eN/A\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e44\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑12‑21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e110 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBenjamin\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistrict official\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eN/A\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e45\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑05‑18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e97 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEthan\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrincipal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e49\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023-11-01\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e65 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLeo\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrincipal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMiddle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e48\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑11‑03\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e95 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eJonathan\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrincipal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMiddle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e45\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑11‑04\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e100 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNoah\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrincipal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023-12-05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e72 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKai\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVice-principal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑11‑06\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e77 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRobert\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHead of physical education\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary and middle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e58\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023-11-05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e106 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLisa\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhysical education teacher\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMiddle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e52\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑05‑12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e86 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCharles\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhysical education teacher\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e51\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023-11-02\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e68 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNicholas\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHomeroom teacher\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMiddle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e41\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑03‑08\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e86 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrank\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHomeroom teacher\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMiddle\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e50\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023-04-02\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e65 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eJohn\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCommunity sports coordinator\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e35\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑05‑08\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e88 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmma\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eParent representative\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrimary\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e48\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eN/A\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c9\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2023‑03‑15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e80 minutes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eContext\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHaitong is a prefecture-level city in southern China. The initiative began after provincial spot checks in 2020 showed that the city did not reach the benchmark for student health-related physical fitness performance, that the fitness test includes cardiovascular fitness, muscular fitness, speed, and flexibility. The municipal education authority then launched a campaign that aimed to improve student fitness through coordinated action across education administration, schools, families, and community partners. It used several governance instruments, including tiered responsibility agreements that specified obligations across administrative levels, school-specific improvement, and student-specific exercise prescriptions. Schools also adopted measures that ensured curriculum time for physical education lessons, organised daily physical activity, and expanded participation through events and competitions. The initiative further allows community access to school venues under local safety protocols. Provincial fitness performance improved during the three-year initiative. These indicators serve to characterise the policy environment and performance pressures that structured implementation, they do not support causal claims about programme effects.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eData collection and data management\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e The study conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews in conference rooms at participants\u0026rsquo; workplaces. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interview examined how implementation became feasible and sustained in practice. It asked participants to describe target setting and monitoring, translation of fitness goals into schedulable and teachable school routines, organisation of home-school-community coordination, responses to barriers and resistance, unintended effects, and strategies that aimed to maintain change over time. To contextualise interview accounts, the research team compiled supplementary materials that participants referenced and that were available for research use, the semi-structured interview guide used in this study is provided as Supplementary File 1. These included municipal notices and documents, agreements, school plans, exercise prescription templates, meeting records, mobilisation communications, and reports. Selected quotations of interviews and excerpts were translated from Chinese to English and checked translations against the original text to preserve meaning and institutional terminology.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eData analysis\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe analysis used NVivo 20 (Lumivero, Denver, CO) and followed constructivist grounded theory procedures [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e]. Open coding was conducted to attend closely to actions, interpretations, and conditions in each segment of text and that remained near participants\u0026rsquo; terms where possible. Axial coding then consolidated recurrent and analytically productive codes into categories. Selective coding specified relationships among categories, with attention to sequencing and conditionality, and supported development of a process model that linked governance instruments to actionability and routine formation. Constant comparison is used across participant roles, organisational levels, and references to different phases of the initiative. Analytic memos documented category development, decision points, and model revisions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTrustworthiness\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eCredibility relied on transcript checking, triangulation across interviews and supplementary materials, and negative case analysis [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e33\u003c/span\u003e]. Dependability used an audit trail and team-based coding. Confirmability drew on reflexive memos, peer debriefing, and researcher role clarification. Transferability was supported through thick description of governance architecture and explicit boundary conditions: Haitong's strong administrative capacity and resource access may limit applicability to constrained settings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cp\u003eWe used a railway metaphor to develop a practitioner-informed process model of actionability (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) in which task-based cognition emerged as the core category linking governance instruments (targets, responsibility agreements, inspections, and reporting routines) to routinised student physical activity. Across accounts, implementation unfolded through interlinked mechanisms of translation, whereby fitness targets were rendered into specific, checkable tasks; coupling, whereby a responsibility chain and activity network aligned accountability with participation opportunities; contextual activation, whereby shared spaces and digital platforms increased salience and coordination across school-home-community settings; and temporal stabilisation, whereby protected time, staged progression, and partner networks supported repetition and habit formation. The analysis also surfaced a cross-cutting compliance dilemma. When multi-actor coordination accumulated into dense monitoring, it could erode perceived legitimacy and elicit performative adherence rather than durable routine formation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTask-based cognition as a translation mechanism\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParticipants described a recurrent translation mechanism through which municipal fitness targets and assessment expectations were rendered actionable in everyday settings. They reported that students, supported by teachers and parents, interpret policy goals as specific, checkable, and staged tasks, rather than as diffuse aspirations. We label this interpretive frame task-based cognition, which is a practical way of making fitness improvement doable by attaching it to observable actions, short feedback loops, and incremental progression. Practitioners used measurement infrastructures, fitness-test components embedded into routine lessons, mock tests, and exercise-prescription templates, to make deficits legible and to specify next steps. Further, they reframed participation as socially valued such as belonging, recognition, parent-child connection, so that tasks felt worth doing rather than merely required. Principals emphasised translation depended less on episodic mobilisation than on redesigning instruction and participation platforms so that activity became repeatable and evaluable within the school day, as Leo noted:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe school takes the responsibility to cultivate students\u0026rsquo; interest in sports\u0026hellip; The focus must be the classroom. We reformed physical education instruction so that students enjoy the lessons, \u0026hellip; movement \u0026hellip;, and ensure that students master at least two sports\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrank, a homeroom teacher, likewise described how routine design absorbed constraints (time, weather, uneven competence) by adapting rules and creating indoor alternatives, thereby stabilising participation as a daily accomplishment rather than an occasional event:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe extended recess to 20 minutes\u0026hellip;, adjusted basketball rules for lower grades\u0026hellip;, guaranteed an uninterrupted daily 1,600 metres run, and developed nine sets of desk‑based and indoor exercises for rainy days.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeemingly minor scheduling and organisational adjustments also reshaped the social experience of mandated activity. Nicolas, another homeroom teacher, described replacing solitary running with small-group formats that redistributed responsibility to peers and converted monitoring into mutual encouragement:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow they run in groups of four\u0026hellip;, rotate the role of pace‑setter\u0026hellip; The kids remind each other to keep going\u0026hellip; It becomes their thing, not just a school thing.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTogether, these processes enabled students to recognise tasks, anticipate improvement, and justify participation in everyday terms, thereby linking municipal governance instruments to routine formation in schools and, where parents joined in, at home.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eCoupling through a responsibility chain and an activity network\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eParticipants indicated that making the initiative actionable required a coupling of accountability and opportunity infrastructure. Practitioners described a responsibility chain that distributed obligations across administrative tiers and schools, and an activity network that provided recurring and attractive participation occasions. Either component on its own was portrayed as responsibility without opportunities invited compliance theatre, whereas opportunities without responsibility were readily displaced by timetable crowding and fluctuating leadership attention. The responsibility chain was organised through signed responsibility agreements, top-leader accountability, school visits, and school-level implementation plans. Participants framed these instruments as clarifying who should act, what should be delivered, and how progress will be monitored, and crucially, as protecting physical education time by increasing the organisational costs of non-compliance under exam-oriented pressures. In parallel, the activity network consisted of tiered team structures, leagues, competitions, and school sport events that widened entry points and allocated visible roles to students. As Robert, the head of physical education, put it:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eSchools need to build multi‑level competition platforms, establish a tiered school team system, and create incentive mechanisms that cover all grades. This ensures that every student can find a sense of belonging and achievement in sports.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVice-principal, Kai, emphasised that sustaining participation required ongoing adaptation of recess activities and competition rules to keep engagement feasible and motivating:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\" \u003cem\u003eSchool leaders must deeply engage\u0026hellip; dynamically adjusting recess exercise content, innovating competition rules\u0026hellip; We integrate\u0026hellip; physical literacy and skills into these activities.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDavid, a municipal official, described deliberate alignment of inspection routines with on-the-ground activity to reduce paperwork-oriented compliance:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\" \u003cem\u003eNow we combine the inspection with a site visit during a league game period\u0026hellip; We don\u0026rsquo;t just ask them for a plan, we watch whether the kids are on the courts\u0026hellip; The accountability pulls the activities into existence, and the activities make the accountability real.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcross interviews, coupling functioned as an implementation mechanism. Accountability instruments secured attention, time, and staffing, while the activity network translated those obligations into socially meaningful pathways through which students could participate. In this way, coupling operationalised governance demands into routinised school practices rather than episodic mobilisation or purely documentary compliance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eContextual activation through shared spaces and digital platforms\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis category specifies contextual activation, the situational conditions that made the translated tasks described above salient and practically executable across school, household, and community settings. Shared-space arrangements included opening school venues to community use under local safety protocols and managing access through reservation systems. Participants also described community equipment provision and school-community sport events that extended practice opportunities beyond the school day. These arrangements were not only material supports, but they also signalled municipal endorsement and helped normalise exercise as an ordinary component of local life, thereby strengthening legitimacy for schools and parents operating under academic pressure. Additionally, cultural and digital cues functioned as triggers that attached meaning and coordination to routine activity. Some schools drew on culturally resonant programmes (e.g., campus Wushu) to embed physical activity in narratives of identity and persistence. As Jonathan, a principal, put it:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003ePhysical activity should be given a prominent place and treated as an important part of life. When students are exhausted or feel like they've failed, they can still enjoy engaging in any type of sport.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDigital tools, especially messaging-platform check-ins and photo-sharing, were described as low-friction coordination devices that connected teachers and parents around concrete tasks and made participation socially visible. John, a community sports coordinator, noted that these tools sometimes shifted parental engagement from oversight to celebration:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\" \u003cem\u003eWithin weeks, parents were sharing photos\u0026hellip; It became a positive competition\u0026hellip; The application wasn't tracking compliance, but it was creating a shared space where physical activity became something to celebrate together.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, participants also reported a critical conditional variation consistent with the paper\u0026rsquo;s broader compliance dilemma. When check-ins accumulated across actors and were repurposed for ranking, evaluation, or intensified supervision, the same visibility that facilitated coordination could be experienced as surveillance, undermining autonomy and inviting resistance. Lisa, a physical education teacher, reflected on this boundary: \"\u003cem\u003eThe tool that was supposed to help has become a source of stress.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBenjamin, a district official, described attempts to preserve a \u0026ldquo;coordination\u0026mdash;not evaluation\u0026rdquo; frame and to prioritise variety and enjoyment over numeric optimisation:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eWhen principals start using the data to rank classes\u0026hellip; it changes the atmosphere\u0026hellip; We now emphasise\u0026hellip; variety and enjoyment, not just numbers.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Overall, contextual activation operated as a bridge between organisational arrangements and lived participation. When shared spaces and digital cues remained enabling and low friction, they supported routine enactment; when they amplified scrutiny and reduced perceived choice, they risked backlash and performative compliance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTemporal stabilisation through protected time, progression, and partners\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e Participants described temporal stabilisation as the process through which translated and contextually activated tasks became durable routines through repeated enactment. They identified three conditions that supported this shift from episodic participation to habit-like regularity. Protected time was treated as a foundational precondition. Interviewees emphasised norms and timetable arrangements that insulated physical activity from academic encroachment (e.g., extended breaks and mandated daily activity). As Lisa stated, \u003cem\u003e\u0026ldquo;Physical education classes should not be encroached upon. Students should gain pleasure and a sense of achievement from them\u003c/em\u003e\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eProgression referred to deliberate staging of tasks by age and competence, from playful foundational movement to more structured sport-specific learning and, where relevant, personalised exercise prescriptions. Participants presented progression as sustaining engagement by aligning challenge with capability, thereby reducing disengagement associated with repeated failure or boredom. Partner networks, including peer leaders, peer teaching, and family co-participation, were described as the relational infrastructure that made tasks shared rather than solitary. Nicholas recounted how student-leadership arrangements expanded participation and sustained return:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\" \u003cem\u003eNow we have student‑run clubs during lunch\u0026hellip; The older kids teach the younger ones\u0026hellip; When students feel they're part of something that peers value, they keep coming back\u0026hellip;\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmma, the parent representative, underscored that how adults partnered mattered as much as whether they partnered, distinguishing supportive co-participation from supervisory checking:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\" \u003cem\u003eSome parents treat fitness tasks as homework to be checked\u0026hellip; That creates stress, not support. But when parents join weekend hiking groups\u0026hellip; the child sees it as time together, not as inspection.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt the same time, participants noted a conditional risk consistent with the broader compliance dilemma. When partnering shifted toward stringent oversight and verification, it could convert participation into stress-laden, compliance-oriented enactment rather than autonomous routine formation. In sum, stabilisation was described as a governance achievement insofar as protected time made repetition possible, progression kept tasks developmentally viable, and partners supplied encouragement without intensifying surveillance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eCompliance dilemma and conditions for durable change\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcross categories, participants identified a cross-cutting tension that refined the mechanism model. Multi-actor coordination could tip into collusive pressure when delegated responsibilities became mutually reinforcing supervision concentrated on the student. In these accounts, the same infrastructures designed to make participation doable (task specification, monitoring, home-school coordination) could also render it compulsory, surveilled, and psychologically external. Charles, a physical education teacher, captured this instrumentalisation through metaphor:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eFor Xiaolin, skipping rope is just another box to check on the daily schedule, no different from reciting a Tang poem\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRobert described how reciprocal demands between schools and families could accumulate into an experience of omnipresent scrutiny:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eParents ask us to manage more, we ask parents to supervise more, and in the end, the child feels like the whole world is watching him run alone\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese accounts suggest that governance alignment and resource mobilisation did not automatically translate into student commitment. Translation remained contingent on how students experienced the task system, whether tasks communicated competence and meaning or signalled surveillance and obligation. Frank\u0026rsquo;s classroom evidence illustrated how intensive monitoring could induce performative compliance rather than sustained engagement:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eI asked my students to write a fitness log. One of my students wrote: My mom checks my pulse after I run\u0026hellip; If my heart rate isn't high enough, she makes me go again\u0026hellip; I started running in place in my room, so she'd hear footsteps, then sit down.' The parents think they're being supportive; the kid learns to perform compliance. The activity becomes something you do to satisfy adults, not something you do for yourself.\u003c/em\u003e\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen students primarily interpreted physical activity through instrumental, compliance-oriented task frames, additional inputs from schools, families, or communities appeared to yield diminishing returns unless they changed the quality of engagement (autonomy, competence, meaning). Protected and non-intrusive time and space functioned as an enabling condition: they allowed partner networks to form organically and helped shift tasks from externally enforced compliance toward internalised routine.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study explains how a municipal adolescent fitness initiative becomes actionable, developing a practitioner-informed grounded process model linking governance instruments to routine formation across school, home, and community settings. The central finding is that task-based cognition operates as the translational hub converting targets, inspections, reporting routines, and responsibility agreements into specific, checkable, repeatable tasks that can be scheduled, supported, and monitored in school life. Actionability unfolds through translation, contextual activation, and temporal stabilisation. The model specifies a consequential tension: coordination strengthens engagement when building competence and meaning but undermines durability when dense monitoring is experienced as surveillance, eliciting performative compliance rather than routinised participation [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e34\u003c/span\u003e]. This contribution moves beyond cataloguing barriers to provide a mechanism-based explanation of when governance designs support durable activity and when they risk compliance without lasting change [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe findings support a process model in which governance instruments shape school and community conditions, yet effects on student participation are mediated by task-based cognition [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e34\u003c/span\u003e]. Responsibility instruments and programme resources become behaviourally consequential insofar as converted into daily, checkable tasks [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e35\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e36\u003c/span\u003e]. Shared spaces and culturally resonant or digital cues activate tasks by increasing salience and feasibility across settings [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e37\u003c/span\u003e]. Protected time, staged progression, and partner networks stabilise repetition into routine [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e38\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e39\u003c/span\u003e]. The model specifies reinforcing and countervailing dynamics: early visible progress strengthens perceived competence and legitimacy, supporting continued uptake [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e39\u003c/span\u003e], whereas dense supervision reconfigures coordination into collusive pressure, undermining autonomy and producing symbolic compliance [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e40\u003c/span\u003e]. The model extends social-ecological accounts by specifying translation mechanisms through which cross-level inputs become actionable within everyday practice, not only what influences behaviour across levels, but how governance is converted into doable routines.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe analysis refines task-based cognition as a governance-mediated interpretive frame. Although aligning with action-planning scholarship in highlighting specificity and cueing [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e41\u003c/span\u003e], it differs in two respects. Task-based cognition emerged as collective accomplishment co-produced by administrators, schools, families, and students through measurement infrastructures, exercise prescriptions, and event systems rather than individual self-regulatory technique. It is normatively charged because tasks are tied to accountability and evaluation; the same infrastructures operate either as capability-building supports (enhancing competence, belonging, legitimacy) or as surveillance technologies eliciting resistance and performative compliance [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e43\u003c/span\u003e]. This duality is consequential for governance accounts: task infrastructures may expand agency or constrain it depending on how monitoring and meaning are configured [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e37\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]. Practically, durable engagement is more likely when task systems are staged and competence-building while preserving autonomy and meaning [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e38\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e43\u003c/span\u003e], when accountability couples with accessible participation opportunities rather than paperwork [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e40\u003c/span\u003e], when contexts provide low-friction triggers (shared spaces, culturally meaningful programmes and digital tools support coordination rather than ranking, and when protected time and space enable repetition and partner networks without coercive oversight.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eLimitations\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral limitations qualify interpretation. Absent student interviews or direct observation, inferences about students' meaning-making derive from practitioner accounts rather than first-person evidence. The single-city case limits transfer to contexts with different administrative capacity, facility access, digital infrastructure, and cultural repertoires. Participants' leadership roles may shape accounts through social desirability or institutional narrative alignment, notwithstanding deviant-case analysis and triangulation. Administrative indicators provide policy context and perceived performance pressure but do not permit causal claims. Future research should foreground student-centred qualitative designs (interviews, diaries, participatory methods) to capture micro-level affect, autonomy, and perceived surveillance; conduct comparative case studies including resource-constrained and rural settings to test boundary conditions; and use mixed-method process evaluations tracking perceived task autonomy, legitimacy, surveillance, and social partnering alongside participation and fitness outcomes over time.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study developed a practitioner-informed grounded process model to explain how a municipal adolescent fitness initiative becomes actionable in everyday implementation. In Haitong, governance instruments and resources did not translate directly into student behaviour, their influence operated through task-based cognition, which rendered policy goals into daily, checkable tasks, and through contextual activation and temporal stabilisation, which made these tasks salient, feasible, and repeatable until they became routine. The model also identifies a defining tension. Coordination can protect time and mobilise support, yet it can also become collusive pressure when monitoring intensifies into surveillance and erodes autonomy and meaning, producing symbolic compliance rather than durable engagement. By positioning task-based cognition as a translational hub within a translation-activation-stabilisation cycle, the study offers a mechanism-oriented refinement of social-ecological accounts and practical guidance for designing governance that builds capability and participation without amplifying coercive compliance.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAcknowledgments\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe would like to thank all participants in this study.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthors\u0026rsquo; contributions\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCai Zhaojian:\u003c/strong\u003e Responsible for the collection and analysis of research data and the full text writing of the paper;\u003cstrong\u003e\u0026nbsp;Siu Ming Choi\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eResponsible for the conception and expression modification of the thesis outline; \u003cstrong\u003eWang Guozhi:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eResponsible for theoretical support and writing guidance of the research.; \u003cstrong\u003eShaocong Zhao:\u003c/strong\u003e Conceptualization and supervision of study and development and editing of manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis work was support by: Fujian Provincial Key Project of Social Sciences-Research on Strategies for Enhancing the Service Capacity of Sports Social Organizations in Fujian Province [Project No.:\u0026nbsp;FJ2024A016], The Collaborative Innovation Platform Project for Functional Exercise Equipment for Children\u0026rsquo;s Posture Correction in the Fuzhou\u0026ndash;Xiamen\u0026ndash;Quanzhou National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone [Project No.:2024-P-003], The General Administration of Sport of China Science and Technology Innovation Project [Project No.:24KJCX089], and the 2025 Fujian Provincial Social Science Foundation Project \u0026ldquo;Research on the Prevention and Treatment Dilemmas and Coping Strategies of Adolescent Scoliosis\u0026rdquo; [Project No.:FJ2025BF039].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Availability Statement\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics approval and consent to participate\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis study was approved by the Research Committee of the University of Macau (SSHRE23-APP03-FED). All protocols are carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, participants and/or their parents/guardians provided informed consent, were informed that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time and confirmed their consent for their data to be used in the study.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConsent for publication\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNon applicable.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author declares no competing interests. \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor details\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003csup\u003e1\u003c/sup\u003eSchool of Physical Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, China; \u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China; \u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003eXiamen University of Technology, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eCale, L., Harris, J., \u0026amp; Chen, M. 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The invisible costs of education reform: Understanding teacher deprofessionalisation in Thailand. \u003cem\u003eBritish Educational Research Journal\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eGrogan, M., MacPhail, A., Costa, J., \u0026amp; O\u0026apos;Keeffe, B. (2025). A content map analysis of the national policy landscape in physical education, physical activity and youth sport in Ireland. \u003cem\u003eSport, Education and Society\u003c/em\u003e, 1-16.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eScanlon, D., Lorusso, J., \u0026amp; Viczko, M. (2024). Understanding (and extending) the conceptual boundaries of policy research in physical education: A scoping review. \u003cem\u003eEuropean Physical Education Review\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e30\u003c/em\u003e(3), 414-434.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eTolgfors, B., Caldeborg, A., Jansson, K., Mustell, J., Sj\u0026ouml;din, K., \u0026amp; Barker, D. (2025). Holistic assessment in school physical education: \u0026lsquo;Seeing the whole picture with our trained eye\u0026rsquo;. \u003cem\u003eEuropean Physical Education Review\u003c/em\u003e, 1356336X251380095.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-public-health","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"pubh","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Public Health](http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/pubh/default.aspx","title":"BMC Public Health","twitterHandle":"@BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Health governance, Policy enactment, Accountability, Youth sport participation, Grounded theory","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160731/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160731/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground \u003c/strong\u003eAdolescent physical health is a key education governance priority, yet municipal fitness mandates often falter in schools, homes, and communities. This study examines how such initiatives become actionable under resource constraints and competing academic pressures.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethods \u003c/strong\u003eUsing a qualitative longitudinal design, we analyzed a three-year (2021–2023) municipal fitness initiative in China through semi-structured interviews with practitioners across the governance chain and supplementary policy documents.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults \u003c/strong\u003eTask-based cognition emerged as the core category, a governance-mediated interpretive frame converting abstract fitness targets into specific, verifiable tasks. Actionability unfolded through translation, coupling, contextual activation, and temporal stabilization, conditioned by a compliance dilemma: dense monitoring erodes legitimacy and autonomy, prompting performative adherence over durable routines.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusions \u003c/strong\u003eFindings specify how measurement infrastructures both build capability and generate surveillance, informing governance designs that foster participation without coercive compliance. Guided by constructivist grounded theory, we propose a process model linking governance instruments to routine formation.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Making a municipal adolescent fitness initiative actionable: A practitioner-informed grounded process model","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-22 07:32:32","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9160731/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-15T08:33:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-13T14:37:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2026-03-25T05:27:42+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-03-24T17:07:59+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Public Health","date":"2026-03-24T17:03:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-public-health","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"pubh","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Public Health](http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/pubh/default.aspx","title":"BMC Public Health","twitterHandle":"@BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6056f797-18c2-4ead-9fb9-519e48b84556","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 22nd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-22T07:32:32+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-22 07:32:32","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9160731","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9160731","identity":"rs-9160731","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}