Changes in common activities of 3rd through 10th graders: the CHIC Study

Abstract

This study was a longitudinal examination of the change in both the activities done and the intensity of those activities from childhood to adolescence. Common activities were assessed by questionnaire initially on 656 subjects from 21 elementary schools; 50.5% were female, 83.4% were Caucasian, 20.6% African-American, and 6.0% were other races. Girls more often reported sedentary activities overall. Weighted least squares analyses showed boys consistently reported more vigorous activities than girls (P < 0.0008). African-American girls reported fewer vigorous activities than Caucasian or other race girls (P = 0.027). Sedentary activities were more frequently reported with increasing age (X2 P < 0.001). The youngest African-American and Caucasian boys reported similar activity patterns. However, boys from other races reported more intense activities until sixth and seventh grades when African-American boys began reporting more sedentary activities than Caucasians or other races (P = 0.004). During sixth-eighth grades, Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models show that girls with more advanced pubertal status reported more sedentary activities than girls who were less developed (P < 0.0001). For high school girls, race was a marginally significant predictor (P = 0.05) of activity status. Neither race nor pubertal status were significant factors in activities chosen by middle school boys. However, for male high school students, Caucasians were more likely than African-Americans to report vigorous activities (P = 0.005). Variation in activities by race within gender suggests that establishing activity patterns in youth may be race-specific as well as gender-specific and must be accounted for in designing physical activity interventions. Also, pubertal maturation is a factor in activity choices in middle school girls.