Effects of COVID-19 Confinement on the Household Routines Of Children

This study aimed to determine how confinement affects children’s routines, more specifically their physical activity (PA) and sedentary time. An online survey was launched to assess how Portuguese children under 13 years of age adjusted their daily routines to confinement. Parents reported the time each child was engaged in different activities throughout the day, which was used to calculate overall sedentary time and overall physical activity time. Based on the data of 2159 children, our study showed that during confinement: (i) there was a decrease in children’s physical activity time and an increase in screen time and family activities; (ii) boys engaged in more playful screen Time than girls (p < 0.05), and girls played more without PA than boys (p < 0.05); (iii) along the age groups, there was a trend for an increase of the overall sedentary time and an associated decrease of the overall physical activity time. In summary, PA of confined children showed low levels and a clear decreasing trend along childhood. Conjoint family and societal strategies to target specific age groups should be organized in the future.

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About Giorgio Bertini

Research Professor. Founder Director at Learning Change Project - Research on society, culture, art, neuroscience, cognition, critical thinking, intelligence, creativity, autopoiesis, self-organization, rhizomes, complexity, systems, networks, leadership, sustainability, thinkers, futures ++
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