Younger Generation: Sedentary Lifestyle and Health Risks - Research Paper

Introduction

The younger generation is sedentary compared to the previous generations. The lack of physical activity is becoming a significant health concern, especially in industrialized countries. The sedentary lifestyle is due to the afforded technological advancement and the reduced need for physical exertion. The easy access to energy-dense diets with reduced physical exercise has led to the increased incidences of obesity. Regular physical activity can help reduce cases of childhood obesity and other related chronic diseases that have been on the rise. Recent studies have shown that there is a cognitive function in children when they participate more in physical activities. There is also improved executive functioning that comes with physical exercise. Theses research focuses more on older children hence the need for more studies on how physical activities affect health outcomes and cognition during the early development stages of a child. Physical activity improves both psychological and physiological development in young children.

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A report from the national association for sports and physical education has guidelines stating that children should be involved in activities that require physical movement as much as possible. The guidelines from the World Health Organization also said that children should spend at least sixty minutes a day doing physical exercise (Carson et al., 2016). It will help them strengthen their bones and muscles. Further studies have shown that engaging in sports help protect children from pathological behavior and somatic illness. Physical exercise provides a balance between self-control and aggressive behavior. Increased defenselessness to dangerous behavior among children is connected to a lack of cognitive control systems. Regular sports also improve the oxygen supply to the brain, better tolerance to stress, and increased muscle and bone density. There is a need for more studies to show how physical exercise and cognitive functioning are related to each other. Cognitive functioning refers to attention, memory, executive functioning, and visual-spatial. Other complex cognitive functioning includes cause and effect, thinking, and language function.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review how physical activity affects children's cognitive performance. Childhood is a crucial period for cognitive development. This paper reviews how sports help children develop their cognitive function. It presents a study to show how physical activity influences the general health of children and demonstrate the relationship between cognitive performance and physical activity.

Rationale

Several reviews have been done on the effect of physical activity on cognitive performance in children. However, most of the study has been done for adolescents and children in late childhood. There is a gap in that there is not enough research on the effect of physical activity on young children in their development stage (Carson et al., 2016). This paper hence addresses this literature gap to enlighten people on why sports are essential for young kids.

Authors

The authors of the articles used in this research paper are people interested in understanding the importance of sports in the cognitive functioning of young children. They feel that this is a particular issue that needs addressing. The authors have noted that there is no physical activity that has adverse effects on the cognitive performance of children (Donnelly et al., 2016). The authors have examined the correlation between physical fitness and physical activity in preschoolers.

Participants

The participants in this research are school children. For correlation purposes, the study used a sample of 60 children with a statistical power greater than 0.81 (Donnelly et al., 2016). There were 114 voluntary children (86 responders, eight years old, 1.24m tall 33.7kg) chosen to participate in the study. The selection criteria were that the kids must have attended the school for the past five years. The exclusion criteria were that they should not be suffering from any neurological or orthopedic disease that might prevent them from taking a lot of exercises.

Method

This research is carried out using data from EBSCO Information Service as well as articles from google scholar. The key things that the study focuses on include physical activities, cognitive function, cognition, and brain. The materials used are mostly original research, but there is also the use of systematic reviews. Six hundred twenty-four articles met the criteria required to conduct this study. On the further assessment of the materials, only those related to physical activities and cognition were emphasized on. Out of the 624 articles found, only 35 emphasized on physical activities and perception (van der Niet et al., 2015). The rest mostly emphasized on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These articles were, therefore excluded from the research. In addition to this, other publications were also used to introduce the issue and discuss its background.

Also, the study involved a pilot study that included a sample of 60 children. The criteria used for selection involved attending the last year at school. The criteria for exclusion from the research involved not having completed five years in the same school as a student. The second criteria for exclusion included one suffering from the orthopedic disorder, a cardiovascular or neurological disease that would prevent one from doing a series of laborious exercise. Thirty-two students were excluded based on the first exclusion, while five were excluded based on the other exclusion. The children and their parents were informed about the study. Parents were required to give consent to allow their children to be involved in the study.

The primary purpose of carrying out the study was to determine how children performed in various subjects such as literature and mathematics. Grades were obtained from the school's board on past examination. The children were then subjected to a battery of physical exercises that involved long jump and sprints. The tests were to assess the kid's muscle strength and agility. The experiments were carried out randomly taking care to not interfere with the children's learning schedule. The tests were carried out each day at the same time ( 10:30 am)

Statistical Analysis

Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationship between school performance and physical activities quantitatively (Ploughman, 2008). Qualitative interpretation of the correlation strengths was made based on the obtained coefficient values. Values of up to 0.100, between 0.100 and 0.300 and above 0.300 showed weak, moderate, and healthy relationships, respectively (Donnelly et al., 2016). It was also necessary to determine the effect of physical activity on school performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for the analysis. The model relates to manifest variables with their corresponding latent variables.

Results

Out of the 60 eligible students, 40 answered the questionnaire. Seventeen were female, and the remaining 23 were male students. Their average BMI was 18.45kg/m2 (Erickson, Hillman, & Kramer, 2015). Most of them lived in families of four, and two members were involved in sports activities. Surprisingly, almost all the students practiced at least one sport. On average, each student spends at least ten hours per week practicing sports. Forty-two percent of them were involved in individual sports, and the remaining 58 practiced team sports. From the study, the following subtopics were analyzed. The subtopics include thinking, attention, language, memory, and learning. The model highlights how physical activities affect cognitive function.

Attention

The research showed that children who were involved in physical exercise could focus more than those who do not participate in the activity. Cross-sectional studies indicate that children aged between 13 to 14 years focus better concerning cognitive flexibility (Ploughman, 2008). This effect is more noticeable after the third hour of a classroom lesson. It is usually the time when there is deterioration in processes related to focus and attention. The study also showed that children participating in sports are generally calmer during lessons. There was also a relationship which showed that children who spend the most time on computers playing games have a low concentration in class. It is also evident that children involved in physical exercise function better than those who spend their time passively.

In a non-school context, research has shown that sports improve selective attention (Ploughman, 2008). Exercise helps to increase the levels of oxyhemoglobin that facilitates the performing of executive function. Children who exercise often have better-planning abilities than those who do not do physical exercise.

Thinking

In this context, thinking incorporates creative thinking, cause and effect, and planning. The study showed that children who undertake non organized sports have more creativity compared to those involved in organized sports. Also, those kids who participate a lot in physical exercise have a better planning process than the others.

Language

Language is also related to physical activities as in the case of thinking and attention. The research identified that sports have a positive effect on speech on the development of speech in many children. There is a connection between sports and school performance. Children involved in sports have better grades than those who do not participate in sports.

Further study has shown that girls involved in sports perform better in subjects such as mathematics and reading than girls not involved in sports for at least one hour every week. This relation, however, does not hold for boys. For studies that require intervention, German-speaking students have a positive correlation when sports and English lessons are combined (Ploughman, 2008). As a result, it has improved the grades of the students in English language grades. In other studies, there is a better chance for students involved in physical activities to identify spelling mistakes and syntactic errors than those who do not exercise. They also have a better understanding of the meanings of words.

Executive functioning is closely related to better learning results. It also improves the emotional development of adolescents and children. Executive functioning can improve through cognitive and physical training. Research also showed that aerobic activities such as yoga, martial arts, and mindfulness training also improve executive function in children (Tomporowski et al., 2015). It has been noted that physical activities cause changes in brain activity patterns. The study showed that children involved in a dance group had a higher somatosensory cortex activity. Other studies have shown that children involved in physical activities before doing a task have better decision making on how to complete the job, unlike those participating in passive activities such as watching TV.

Learning and Memory

A lot of studies carried out in this field were based on intervention trials of different types. The review showed that overall, children who are more fit have better hippocampus capacity and balsa ganglia (Tomporowski et al., 2015). It is a section of the brain that is involved in memory and cognitive control. For children between three and five years, their cognitive performance increases with an increase in physical activity. Also, there is a positive correlation between better working memory and sports for children aged between eight and twelve years. The intensity of physical activity for children aged between twelve and fourteen years affe...