Sport and Activity during childhood and adolescence
September 03, 2016
Continuing our focus on physical activity in youth from our previous post (2nd April 2016 titled Organised sport doesn’t effect sedentary time in youths), comes recently published research in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. A recent study titled “The influence of sport club participation on physical activity, fitness and body fat during childhood and adolescence: The LOOK Longitudinal Study” examined the effect of sports club participation on physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition annually from 8 to 12 years of age and again at age 16 years.
The results found that Australian youth taking part in club sports are more active, fitter and have less body fat that non-participants. However, the majority of sports participants did not meet recommended levels of physical activity with the effect of organised sport on physical activity diminishing during adolescence, especially in girls.
The study raises discussion round two main points:
- that coaches, parents and teachers should direct more attention to sports training and game strategies that promote greater involvement for girls
- greater support for sport inside and outside of school hours could enable more children to meet recommended daily amounts of physical activity
Click the link above to read the research in full and it’s findings and stay tuned for our next instalment on this topic that is coming very soon.