Physical Well-Being
Most school-age children engage in high levels of physical activity, as seen in the opening case study. Physical activity is usually defined as taking place any time the child is not asleep or completely sedentary (Macdonald, Ziviani, & Abbott, 2006). This definition includes lower-level movement activities (e.g., eating, attending school, completing homework, or playing a musical instrument) and higher-level movement activities (e.g., playing on the playground or at a park, as well as participating in organized sports practices or competitions). Research findings show that levels of physical activity increase from infancy, peak in middle childhood, and begin to decrease during middle adolescence (Eaton, McKeen, & Campbell, 2001). This pattern of activity may surprise you because most people assume that 2- or 3-year-olds are the most active. However, when researchers strapped motion recorders on the wrists and ankles of participants aged 6 weeks to 52 years, they found that children between the ages of 7 and 9 were the most active, as seen in Figure (Eaton et al., 2001). This peak of activity occurred later in childhood than others have suggested (Pellegrini & Smith, 1998) and consequently elicits several interesting questions about the function of physical activity. These findings also have direct implications for how we parent and teach these highly active youth as well as how we may diagnose psychopathology, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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