We often talk about how much time teenagers and children spend on the couch. We're mostly concerned about their activity levels in fear of them becoming overweight or even obese. Who knew inactivity could also lead to behavioral issues. Now it’s not saying that every child or teenager who spends time in front of the TV will have behavioral issues, just the ones who don't exercise at all. I must say I myself spend a good deal watching TV and movies when I go home, so why do I not have behavioral issues? Answer for me personally is because I'm a collegiate cross country runner; therefore, exercise is not a problem in the least.
In a recent study of children and teens at ages 9-11 the children in the study were moving around for about an hour a day. At age 15, however, only 31% of those surveyed met the guidelines of the government for moving about an hour a day. Just 17% exercised on weekends! In a study I found of over 7,000 teenagers, boys who reported less than 1 hour of activity a week had more symptoms of anxiety, depression and withdrawal than boys who met the guidelines. Inactive girls also had problems with anxiety and depression. Also inactive girls were more likely than the inactive boys to say they had sleeping issues and rule-breaking issues. Also they found that less active teenagers have more social and attention problems.
So why do teenagers become so lazy when only a couple years earlier they couldn't get enough of running around outside playing kickball? Well, here are a couple reasons they no longer have recess after elementary school, and they don’t have a lot of opportunity for spontaneous exercise, and of course, TV and video games are a huge role in the inactivity of teens.So now the question is how do you fix it? Not so hard to figure out the answer, is it? Get those teens out of the house! Sign them up for after school sports or just get them interested in something!
2 comments:
This is an interesting blog. I think I did one similar to yours, but it only studied kids' activiy levels. This article also mentions the psychological affects that can accompany inactivity. Who would think that the heightened levels of depression the U.S. could be linked to physical inactivity, especially those among adolescents. I also like how the article specified the psychological issues, such as depression and anxiety. Good Job!
Physical activity among children should be held with the utmost importance. This is especially considering the extremely high, and still rising percentage of obese children in America. It's also unfortunate that sedentary habits can lead to not only obesity, but other psychological issues as well. Again, this is another dilemma that can be easily prevented and/or reduced with a little physical activity each day.
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