More fearmongering on the backs of children

[firecat]

"Study: When kids become teens, they get sluggish," by LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer (warning, contains fearmongering)

While 90 percent of 9-year-olds get a couple of hours of exercise most days, fewer than 3 percent of 15-year-olds do. ...
The ... study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked about 1,000 U.S. children at various ages, from 2000 until 2006. ...

I've seen a few critical comments on this study along the lines of "Teens have more responsibilities," "Schools make children hate exercise," and so on. But what I'm wondering is — if somewhere between 10 and 15 is the magic cut-off point where children become less active, has anyone asked whether there might be a biological cause, something to do with puberty? Perhaps the body says to itself (via hormones) “We have to save some of this energy for reproduction now.”

Comments

[charlottezweb.livejournal.com]

This study made my head explode, or at least the article written from the study (as you know, sometimes those things aren't very connected). The lack of interest in the amount of exercise younger kids get! Hey, not video game playing couch potatoes. The lack of facts on the difference in free time between a 10 yr old and a 16 yr old! The lack of memory on the part of the writers about what it's like to be a teenager traditionally (moping! holing up w/friends! working your ass off!). I think, like most of these things, that it's very badly done.