Time for Health

Abstract

This chapter examines associations between children's time use and a range of different health outcomes. Concerns about the prevalence of obesity and being overweight among children, and associated health problems, have drawn attention to questions around whether children are spending too much time in sedentary screen-based activities on the one hand and not enough time in active physical activities on the other. Technological change has greatly enhanced the capacity for children to spend time in a wide variety of screen-based activities, and persistent concerns about children's safety outdoors have led to increasing restrictions on the time children spend outside. These factors have likely coalesced over recent decades, resulting in children leading lives that are less active and spent indoors focused on screens. The widespread view is that this is indeed the case. Considering the evidence for this, the chapter analyses long-term trends in screen time (comprised of time watching TV, using computers, and playing video games) alongside trends in physical activities such as sport and exercise, play outside the home, and active travel (walking and cycling).