Physical activity and sedentary behaviours in youth: issues and controversies

Abstract

There is growing concern over the effects of sedentary lifestyles on the health of young people. Recent rapid increases in juvenile obesity have received a great deal of attention in the scientific and popular press and have been attributed partly to television viewing, computer games and other sedentary behaviours. These are thought to compete with physical activity. There is a 'moral panic' concerning the 'couch kids' culture in modern western society. Project STIL (Sedentary Teenagers and Inactive Lifestyles) at Loughborough University is investigating 'what young people do' and focuses on active and inactive pursuits chosen in their leisure time. The following issues are addressed in this paper with specific reference to young people: how do we define 'sedentary behaviour' and do key sedentary behaviours displace physical activity? Are key sedentary behaviours obesogenic? What are the secular trends for children and youth for TV viewing? Our results for young people suggest that: 1. TV viewing and video-game playing are largely uncorrelated with physical activity, suggesting that there is time for both 2. meta-analytic findings show that body fatness is not related in any clinically meaningful way with key sedentary behaviours 3. although more children and youth have greater access to TVs than in previous generations, the amount of TV watched per head has not changed for 40 years. Preliminary findings from Project STIL suggest that inactivity is more complex that we sometimes think. Indeed, measures of 'couch potato-ism', such as TV viewing, may be inappropriate markers of inactivity.

Leisure-time physical activity and sedentary behavior clusters and their associations with overweight in middle-aged French adults

“…13,53 Several studies have reported that these two behaviors are independent for young people 54,55 and also for adults. 12,15,35,56,57 In addition, gender differences have been reported previously in the associations between LTPA and TV watching. In a study by Sugiyama et al, 53 it was found that women who reported more time watching TV spent less time in LTPA, whereas such a relationship was not found in men.…”

“…11 In parallel with physical activity, sedentary behavior is of particular interest, as a complementary dimension related to specific health outcomes. 12,13 Sedentary behavior refers to occupations that do not increase energy expenditure substantially above the resting level and includes activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, watching television (TV) and other forms of screen-based entertainment. 14 Some studies have suggested that sedentary behavior, typically assessed by the time spent watching TV, is associated with increased obesity risk.…”

Living with the consequences of policy decisions: reactions to student lifestyles in the neighbourhood

“…Nonetheless, leisure researchers have exercised caution in considering the basis of concern for processes they review in the context of moral panics. For example, the bases of moral panics in relation to 'football hooligans', 'couch kids', child abuse in sport, and young people at risk through binge drinking, have been questioned by Redhead (2007), Biddle et al (2004), Brackenridge (2001Brackenridge ( , 2002 3 , Hickey et al (2009), respectively. Valentine et al (2008, p. 28) are equally cautious, arguing that moral panics about binge drinking are 'implicitly producing a monolithic image of alcohol consumption in urban areas that fails to acknowledge the socio-spatially differentiated nature of practices of alcohol consumption and regulation'.…”

El uso de videojuegos activos entre los adolescentes. (The use of active videogames among adolescents)

“…Sin embargo, se trata de una hipótesis controvertida, puesto que otros trabajos indican que el uso de medios tecnológicos y la actividad física son conductas que pueden coexistir (Biddle, Gorely, Marshall, Murdey y Cameron, 2003). Incluso otras investigaciones seña-lan que los niños y adolescentes más activos son los que dedican más tiempo a los videojuegos (Marshall, Biddle, Sallis, McKenzie y Conway, 2002;Martín, 2007).…”