Physical activity and screen time of children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany: a natural experiment

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on social life has been drastic and global. However, the different numbers of cases and different actions in different countries have been leading to various interesting yet unexplored effects on human behavior. In the present study, we compare the physical activity and recreational screen time of a representative sample of 1711 4- to 17-year-olds before and during the strictest time of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany. We found that sports activity declined whereas recreational screen time increased. However, a substantial increase in habitual physical activities leads to an overall increase in physical activity among children and adolescents in Germany. The effects differ in size but not in their direction between age groups and are stable for boys and girls. We conclude from this natural experiment that physical activity among children and adolescents is highly context-driven and mutual and does not act as a functional opposite to recreational screen time.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Interrelation of Physical Activity, Screen Time and Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents in Germany: Results of the Motorik-Modul Study

“…Regarding age groups, 961 participants were between four and ten years, and 750 children were between ten and 17 years. A more detailed description of the age structure of our sample has been reported elsewhere [ 37 ]. In total, 27.0% of the mothers and 31.4% of the fathers of the participating children had a university degree.…”

“…Levels of PA and ST increased within-COVID-19 compared to levels pre-COVID-19, whereas pre-COVID-19 PA levels are comparable to the German state in 2018 [ 66 , 67 ]. A detailed discussion of those results can be found elsewhere [ 37 ].…”

“…The high use of task sheets and the low use of video conferences indicates that the day was less structured through regular online classes, but rather that children and adolescents could choose by themselves when to engage in learning activities. Interestingly, in Germany, the lockdown has resulted in increased PA, which is in contrast to the structured day hypothesis, while increases in leisure ST support the structured day hypothesis [ 37 ]. However, in several other studies, decreases in both PA and SB were observed, but those studies commonly investigated relationships between the same behaviors and not across ST and PA behaviors [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

COVID-19 and physical inactivity: Teetering on the edge of a deadlier pandemic?

“…These lifestyle changes were also observed in children. For example, studies conducted with large samples of children and adolescents in the US [ 3 ] and Germany [ 4 ] saw a reduction in PA and greater engagement in SB during the pandemic compared to earlier periods. These studies highlight dramatic negative changes in PA and SB, which is concerning given the considerable health risks associated with insufficient PA and excessive SB.…”

Movement Behaviors during COVID-19. A Survey among Children under Five Years of Latin American Origin or Descent from Chile, Mexico, and the US

“…This includes a decline in PA 7,12 and an increase in ST during COVID-19. 7,13 This is likely due to children not being able to go outdoors, not attending their ECEC in-person (and often, switching to online educational activities), 14 and having increased access to electronic media devices during COVID-19. It has been shown that children are more active and less sedentary the more time they spend outdoors, [15][16][17] and are more active at ECEC than at home 18 .…”