Study Reveals Adolescents Participation in Out-of-School and Weekend Activities More Likely to Meet 24 Hour Movement Guidelines

Adolescent participation in out-of-school and weekend activities was positively associated with meeting 24-hour movement guidelines, according to a new study led by UTHealth Houston School of Public Health researchers. 

The study, led by Christopher D. Pfledderer, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, analyzed data from the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health to study adherence to 24-hour movement behaviors. Current guidelines recommend that adolescents meet 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, less than 2 hours of recreational screentime, and 8-10 hours of sleep each day, which has been shown to be beneficial for physical and mental health outcomes. 

Pfledderer and his team investigated survey results from 16,403 adolescents to explore associations between out-of-school activities and adherence to 24-hour movement recommendations. 

“You get 24 hours daily, which equals to 1,440 minutes. Each minute you spend engaging in one movement behavior takes away time during that day you can spend engaging in other movement behaviors,” said Pfledderer with the Michael & Susan Dell Center of Healthy Living. The 24-hour paradigm shows the co-dependency of physical activity and sedentary behaviors, such as sleep and screen time, where participation in sports or volunteer work decreases time spent on screens and vice versa. 

“Our study found that community service/volunteer work contributes to meeting individual guidelines as well as concurrently meeting all three guidelines, the same as sports,” Pfledderer said. Earlier research highlighted the benefits of participating in sports and increased physical activity time, and this study shows the positive correlation of community and volunteer work reported.  

From the results collected on 24-hour movement adherence:  

• 13% met Physical Activity guidelines 
• 69.8% met Sleep guidelines 
• 35.5% met weekday discretionary Screentime guidelines 
• 4.8% met all three guidelines concurrently. 
• Other highlights included females having significantly lower odds of meeting all three guidelines than males. 

These findings suggest the need to include more recommendations for out-of-school and weekend behaviors, such as activities/lessons, community service/volunteer work, and sports to boost healthy adolescent behaviors. 

“The key is to make sure these programs are highly accessible and available for any adolescent who would like to participate,” Pflederer said, compared to the high financial costs associated with sports, which create a barrier for low-income families. Through these recommendations for increased physical activity and sedentary behaviors, community service and volunteer work can be a readily available source for adolescents to meet movement guidelines. 

Additional School of Public Health authors included Kevin Lanza, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, and Ethan Hunt, PhD, assistant professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences.