If your children spent more time watching TV than playing a sport, their emotional wellness may be at risk. This is according to a new study, published online this month in the Journal of Science and Medicine, which has found a link between excessive physical inactivity and depression levels in children and adolescents.
According to the Australia’s Deakin University researchers, and other Melbourne adolescent mental health, nutrition, and paediatric experts, young people who are more physically active and spend less time in front of a screen (e.g. televisions and computers) are less likely to experience depressive symptoms. The researchers assessed 8256 students aged 10–16 years for levels of exercise activity, leisure screen time behaviours, and the degree of associated depressive symptoms, using the Short Mood and Feeling Questionnaire.
The results of the study showed that 33% of the young people surveyed had moderate to high depressive symptoms, with girls exhibiting the highest rates. However, respondents who participated in physical exercise in or outside of school were shown to have lower depressive symptoms, while those who met the recommended guidelines for physical activity, and leisure screen time use, were also independently associated with lower odds for depressive symptoms.
Previous research has already proven that children who have excessive sedentary pursuits such as watching TV and computer use are more likely to be obese. Childhood obesity can, in itself, produce feelings of low self-esteem out of which depression commonly arises, so it stands to reasons that there’s a relationship between increased screen use and depression. There’s also existing evidence to show that young people are, more and more, seeking out ‘electronic relationships’ over face-to-face friends, which hinders their interpersonal skill development. Therefore, it’s likely that the lack of in-person social support you feel from spending increased time online may make you prone to more feelings of depression.
There is limited research in the field of physical activity and mental health pertaining to children and adolescents, and so child wellness experts agree that, in order to effectively evaluate all the mitigating factors, researchers need to undertake more youth-specific longitudinal studies. However, this new study does coincide with what prior – albeit sparse – research has shown; there is a significant level of consistent negative links between mental health and sedentary behaviour for adolescents.