The Assessment of Physical Activity and Nutrition in Home Schooled Versus Public Schooled Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to descriptively compare the physical activity and dietary intake of public school (PSC) versus home schooled children (HSC). Potential parental and home influences were also examined. Thirty six matched pairs of public school-home school children aged 7-11 years participated in this study. Each participant wore an activity monitor and recorded their dietary intake concurrently for seven consecutive days. PSC had significantly more total and weekday steps, and spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity compared with HSC. There were no differences in dietary intake between the two groups. These results suggest differences in physical activity between PSC and HSC and encourage further study of public and home school environments, in relation to the obesity epidemic.

How Healthy Is Homeschool? An Analysis of Body Composition and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

“…Study limitations include possible bias through self‐selection and a lack of ethnic or socioeconomic diversity among participants. However, the predominantly white sample with high socioeconomic status seen in our study matches the homeschool population demographics seen in other studies . Thus, generalizability of our findings among homeschool children should not be affected.…”

“…Our research supports this thin, lean body composition profile among homeschool children. However, it refutes our hypothesis that they would have poorer body composition secondary to similar or decreased levels of physical activity compared to public school children . Cardel et al also found homeschool children to consume on average 120 total fewer kilocalories per day, significantly less trans fat and total sugar, and significantly more fiber, fruits, and vegetables .…”

“…Unlike public school children, homeschool children are not subject to state regulations including physical education classes, physical activity initiatives, or regular fitness testing . Compared to their public school peers, homeschool children have been shown to have similar or lower levels of physical activity . Due to decreased energy expenditure, homeschool children are at a potentially higher risk for poor body composition and corresponding deficits in cardiovascular health.…”

“…However, only 2 studies address body composition in homeschool children in the literature with conflicting results. In 2010, Long et al found no difference in body composition between 36 age‐/sex‐matched homeschool and public school children aged 7–11 years . Four years later, Cardel et al found 7‐ to 12‐year‐old homeschool children to have lower BMI than their public school peers .…”

Understanding differences between summer vs. school obesogenic behaviors of children: the structured days hypothesis

“…As mentioned previously, in comparison to school, summer is a time where children have more autonomy and access to fill their time with unfavorable activities, particularly in the home environment. Even when autonomy is minimized, children inherently opt for the less-healthful alternative (e.g., unhealthy snack, sedentary activity) [25, 187, 188] and the home environment represents a more open-ended and less-regulated environment for children to overindulge in unhealthy behaviors that have been associated with overweight and obesity in children [22, 23, 189]. Thus, the potential for children to adversely impact their health is much greater during summer compared to when children are in a more structured and controlled environment (e.g., school).…”