60 minutes of moderate physical activity per day, this is what the World Health Organization recommends for children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17. But are these recommendations followed?
According to the 2022 report of the National Observatory on the level of physical and sedentary activity cited by The world, it’s not exactly glorious: children and adolescents are the category in which sedentary time has increased the most. A figure linked in particular to the context of the Covid-19 epidemic and the subsequent confinements and curfews in the last two years.
But it is also necessary to observe gender distribution of this increase in sedentary lifestyle among children: ONAPS notes that if 50.7% of children reach the recommended sixty minutes of activity, only 33.3% of girls succeed. The gap widens even more since the age of 11.
Because girls engage in less physical activity than boys
According to the Canadian program Keeping Girls in Sport, this abandonment among girls in early adolescence is linked to several factors: lack of time, costs, injury or lack of fun.
The lack of positive images of athletes in the media, but also their hypersexualization or the absence of different representations far from stereotypes, can also lead to disinterest, exert further pressure on adolescence and favor the disengagement of girls.
How to stem this phenomenon? ONAPS recommends a cross-cutting approach with many ways to improve children’s mobility: the implementation of priority sports learning in schools, but it also means encouraging active mobility (walking or cycling) and changing travel habits right from the start. more tender age. It also insists on the impact of an urbanization policy and improvement of accessibility in public space, in order to have more spaces available for sports, but also for free games and green spaces.
What if sport were also a means to combat gender inequalities? “If this discipline is the place where inequalities are even more evident, it can also be a lever to reduce these inequalities”notes the research work of Lucie Escaffre. “Physical education in fact involves the body, aims not only to develop physical and motor skills, but also seeks to contribute to the well-being of students, both physically and morally. “
Source: Madmoizelle
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
