Family environment significantly affects the sedentary lifestyle of young people. Those who dedicate less time to educational activities turn out to be the ones with more screens in their bedrooms. Like those who have a greater number of electronic devices in their homes, those who use more hours of their free time in on-screen activities -television, computer,
One of the novelties of this research is the use of the accelerometer and a series of questionnaires to obtain the results. As the main author of the article and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Verónica Cabanas, explains, “sedentary behavior has been measured in 2 ways: the 1st form objectively with accelerometry, measuring accelerations and all movements during a week and, the 2nd form, some questionnaires that allow us to know what they spend their sedentary time”.
In the study, developed by researchers from the University of Cádiz, the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the Immunonutrition group of the CSIC and which has been published in the European Journal of Sport Science, has been studied how the environment influences the homes of 1,600 young people between 9 and 18 years of age in their sedentary lifestyle. Among one of the main objectives of the study is, according to Óscar L. Veiga, doctor of the Autonomous University of Madrid, “to identify the factors that influence in which the children are more active or sedentary”, as well as the search of the reduction of the risk of suffering cardiometabolic diseases in the profile studied.
Diverse variables have been taken into account to carry out the study. Starting with the basic characteristics of the home, the perception of the neighborhood, up to the accounting of the sports and technological materials found in their homes or bedrooms and their respective quality. According to Cabanas, these variables, as well as the use of accelerometry, the coverage of a higher range of behaviors including transportation, study and social are the factors that differentiate the study from others who have treated the same topic. The study tries to evaluate all sedentary behaviors, be passive (technological leisure), as active (study).
Like conclusions have been found that do not differentiate the results according to the sex of young people, such as the 3 hours spent by adolescents in activities with a screen, compared to the 2 employees in the studies, within seven hours estimated They have free time. As well as the location of a lower level of a sedentary lifestyle in cases where young people have greater access to materials, facilities and sports equipment.
However, there are certain variables that have different effects according to sex. It is the case of having a garden at home, causing the children to navigate less by Internet. Living in a good neighborhood causes girls to play less games. Although it is the boys who enjoy a greater number of computers, consoles or televisions in their rooms, girls spend more time in social interactions such as talking on the phone, chatting or social networks. Concluding that girls are more sedentary, but they spend more time in activities related to education, such as reading or studying, and evidencing the bias for sex that exists in sedentary free time behaviors.
Javier Aranceta, a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health, had already participated in previous research on sedentary life in children and adolescents. However, the studies had different objectives and this is because they wanted to see the determinants of obesity in young people, “2 axes were studied. The first socio-economic, in which it was seen that at a lower socio-economic level, more chances of suffering from obesity, and the second axis, which had to do with physical activity, therefore, with sedentary lifestyle”, explains the specialist.
