The relationship between children's habitual activity level and psychological well-being.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the relationship between habitual physical activity and psychological well-being in children.


METHODS
Seventy children (35 boys, 35 girls), age 10.4+/-0.4 y, wore hip pedometers over a period of 7 d. Well-being was conceptualized as the presence of global self-esteem and the absence of anxiety and depression and assessed with the use of three questionnaires.


RESULTS
Correlation analyses revealed that habitual physical activity had a strong association with global self-esteem (r=0.66), depression (r=-0.60) and anxiety (r=-0.48). However, using partial correlations, the significant relationships were removed for anxiety and depression, but remained for self-esteem (r=0.36). When groups were created based upon activity level, children achieving >12,000 steps/day had more positive psychological profiles than children achieving <9,200 steps/day.


CONCLUSIONS
The results support the findings from previous studies that have explored the relationship between physical activity and well-being, but represent the first to use a mechanical measure of physical activity over a 7-d period to assess the relationships. The actual step counts associated with more positive psychological well-being can be shown to be in line with the recommended guidelines that children accumulate a minimum of 60 min of moderate-intensity activity per day.
Parfitt
Gaynor
G
Children's Health and Exercise Research Centre, School of Sport and Health Sciences, St. Luke's Campus, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom. c.g.parfitt@exeter.ac.uk
Eston
Roger G
RG
D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires