Media release Wednesday 3 May 2006
Parents need to encourage child's play, says AUT study
New research shows a positive link between children's overall activity levels and their physical activity behaviour
outside of the school environment.
AUT University PhD scholar Michele Cox carried out the study comparing primary school-aged children's in and out of
school activity and discovered both girls and boys completed more steps after school.
The study recently appeared in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
Overall 52.4% of steps were taken outside of school and 47.6% in school. This was more pronounced among the most active
children who completed 55.1% of their steps outside school, compared to 46.7% in the least active group.
"This makes sense given there is a ceiling on the amount of physical activity a child can do within a school's
structured physical education classes, organised sport and breaks," says Ms Cox.
"Parents need to recognise this and take responsibility for getting their children moving and not load it onto schools
and say 'you do it'."
The findings are based on 91 children aged between 5 and 11 years old from an Auckland decile 7 primary school. The
children wore pedometers for three consecutive days and measurements were taken at the end of the school day and first
thing in the morning.
The study also confirmed boys are more active than girls with a mean step difference of 2,575 steps, and while the
average for both was within the recommended guidelines, the extremely high levels of some masked a large group of
sedentary children.
"The activity levels of some children, as low as 7,000 steps per day, are a real concern. So it's important that
physical activity is continued to be promoted to all children, even the seemingly active ones," says Ms Cox.
The study also found the older the child, the more steps they do.
"This could be because younger children are more supervised in their play or pedometers may underestimate their steps
because of the children's slower total speed and the intermittent nature of their play."
Ms Cox hopes to go onto study who parents, schools and children think are responsible for encouraging their physical
activity.
"I suspect schools and parents might blame each other, but if nothing changes, obviously our children's activity rates
won't improve."
Ms Cox is also Head of Women's Football for New Zealand Soccer and is a member of the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de
Football Association) Committee for Women's Football and the FIFA Women's World Cup.
ENDS