S P SSPORTS PO ORT TSS ...NOT SCREENS
THE KEY TO HAPPIER, HEALTHIER CHILDREN
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hether it’s sports practice, music lessons or a casual catch up with friends, when children are involved in after-school activities, they’re more likely to feel happier and healthier than their counterparts who are glued to a screen.
to encourage children to participate in activities other than screens. “Helping children develop a good sense of personal wellbeing is paramount in today’s uncertain environment,” Dr Virgara says. This is especially important for primary school-aged children as they’re learning about the challenges and risks that full-time school can present; but it’s equally important for teenagers who are facing a range of physical, social and emotional changes.
In a new study conducted by the University of South Australia and the Department for Education, researchers found that children’s wellbeing is heightened when they participate in extra-curricular activities, yet lowered when they spent time on social media or playing video games. “Our study highlights how some out-of-school activities can boost children’s wellbeing, while others - particularly screens - can chip Published in BMC Pediatrics, the study analysed data from 61,759 away at their mental and physical health.” Screens are a massive school students in years 4 to 9 (via the 2018 South Australian distraction for children of all ages. Most parents will attest to this. And Wellbeing and Engagement Collection), assessing the average whether children are gaming, watching TV or on social media, there’s number of days per week children participated in after-school something about all screens that’s damaging to their wellbeing. activities (3-6pm), and measuring these against wellbeing factors “It’s interesting because you might think that it’s the lack of physical happiness, sadness, worry, engagement, perseverance, optimism, movement that’s causing this, yet our research shows that doing emotion regulation, and life satisfaction. homework or reading - both sedentary activities – It found that most students watched TV about four days of the school positively contribute to wellbeing, so it’s something else. week and spent time on social media about three days of the week. In fact, we found that children’s wellbeing was higher when they participated in extra-curricular activities – According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, one even if they already reported being happy.” in seven children (equivalent to about 560,000 children) have a mental health disorder, with one in ten children What this shows is that we need to find ways to having concerning levels of wellbeing. encourage children of all ages and backgrounds to Lead researcher, UniSA’s Dr Rosa Virgara says the research highlights an acute need
84 Peninsula Kids – Summer 2022/23
get involved in activities that keep them away from TV, computers and mobile devices.