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

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if part of it is social. When you are a child, you romp around in free-form play. As a teenager, you're supposed to do more organized sports, no free-form play, but also none of the everyday exercise (like running or swimming for health) that adults do. Physical activity is only for organized sports, and organized sports are only for the athletically talented. Everybody else is supposed to sit around.

Before cars, teenagers would have walked or biked places, but this is too difficult in most places because an SUV will squish you like a bug.