The influence of club football on children’s daily physical activity

Abstract

Studies on the effects of organized club sports on children’s total amount of physical activity (PA) show varying results. This may be partly due to different sports having different activity levels, but also different possibilities for being played outside club settings. This study investigates how playing football as a club sport is associated to the total amount of daily PA among children and how increased school recess activity impacts on this. Using accelerometers, the average daily amount of children’s PA as well the activity levels in specific contexts, such as during club-sports and school recess, was measured on a sample of 518 Danish children aged 9–10. The study found that children playing club football had higher total daily amounts of PA than both children taking part in other club-sports and children not taking part in club-sports at all. About half of the difference in total PA could be explained by higher activity levels during school recess. The association between club football and total PA, and the mediating effect of school recess PA, can be interpreted as the result of two main factors: the high activity levels during club football, and that Danish school grounds have football facilities which allow able and interested children to play football for many hours each week during school recess. On a more general level, the results indicate that the influence leisure-time club sport participation has on PA may differ due to how well the sport can be transferred to and played in other daily contexts for children’s self-organized PA, such as school recess.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Andersen et al., ‘Physical Activity and Clustered Cardiovascular Risk in Children: A Cross-sectional Study (The European Youth Heart Study)’; Dencker and Andersen, ‘Health-related Aspects of Objectively Measured Daily Physical Activity in Children’; and Dencker and Andersen, ‘Health-related Aspects of Objectively Measured Daily Physical Activity in Children’, Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging 28 (2008): 133–44.

2. Hansen, ‘Hvorledes Idræt blev til folkesundhed’; World Health Organization, ‘European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health and Development’; and World Health Organization, ‘The Origins and Evolution of Public Health’.

3. Jacobsen, Idræt og velfærdspolitik [Sport and welfare politics].

4. Basterfield et al., ‘Longitudinal Associations between Sports Participation, Body Composition and Physical Activity from Childhood to Adolescence’; Nielsen et al., ‘Predisposed to Participate? The Influence of Family Socio-economic Background on Children’s Sports Participation and Daily Amount of Physical Activity’.

5. Nielsen et al., ‘Predisposed to Participate? The Influence of Family Socio-economic Background on Children’s Sports Participation and Daily Amount of Physical Activity’.

6. Laub, Danskernes Motions- og Sportsvaner 2011.

7. Ibid.

8. Bendiksen et al., ‘Heart Rate Response and Fitness Effects of Various Types of Physical Education for 8- to 9-year-old Schoolchildren’; Randers et al., ‘Effect of Game Format on Heart Rate, Activity Profile, and Player Involvement in Elite and Recreational Youth Players’; and Randers et al., ‘Activity Profile and Physiological Response to Football Training for Untrained Males and Females, Elderly and Youngsters: Influence of the Number of Players’.

9. Pawlowski et al., ‘“Like a Football Camp for Boys”. A Qualitative Exploration of Gendered Activity Patterns in Children’s Self-organized Play during School Recess’; Pawlowski et al., ‘Barriers for Recess Physical Activity: A Gender Specific Qualitative Focus Group Exploration’; Nielsen, Pfister, and Andersen, ‘Gender Differences in the Daily Physical Activities of Danish School Children’; and Nielsen, Children’s Daily Physical Activity – Patterns and the Influence of Sociocultural Factors.

10. Nielsen, Children’s Daily Physical Activity – Patterns and the Influence of Sociocultural Factors.

11. Nielsen, Pfister, and Andersen, ‘Gender Differences in the Daily Physical Activities of Danish School Children’; Nielsen, Children’s Daily Physical Activity – Patterns and the Influence of Sociocultural Factors.

12. Ekelund et al., ‘Physical Activity Assessed by Activity Monitor and Doubly Labelled Water in Children’.

13. De Vries et al., ‘Clinimetric Review of Motion Sensors in Children and Adolescents’; Brage et al., ‘Reexamination of Validity and Reliability of the CSA Monitor in Walking and Running’; and Mattocks et al., ‘Early Life Determinants of Physical Activity in 11 to 12 year Olds’.

14. Eiberg et al., ‘Maximum Oxygen Uptake and Objectively Measured Physical Activity in Danish Children 6–7 Years of Age: The Copenhagen School Child Intervention Study’; Dencker et al., ‘Daily Physical Activity in Swedish Children Aged 8–11 Years’.

15. The group with three days of measurement and the group with four days of measurement did not differ in their average amounts of daily activity.

16. Trost et al., ‘Validity of the Computer Science and Applications (CSA) Activity Monitor in Children’; Puyau et al., ‘Validation and Calibration of Physical Activity Monitors in Children’; Treuth et al., ‘Defining Accelerometer Thresholds for Activity Intensities in Adolescent Girls’; Sirard et al., ‘Calibration and Evaluation of an Objective Measure of Physical Activity in Preschool Children’; and Mattocks et al., ‘Calibration of an Accelerometer during Free-living Activities in Children’.

17. Strong et al., ‘Evidence Based Physical Activity for School-age Youth’.

18. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice; Giddens, The Constitution of Society – Outline of the Theory of Structuration.

19. Bendiksen et al., ‘Heart Rate Response and Fitness Effects of Various Types of Physical Education for 8- to 9-year-old Schoolchildren’; Randers et al., ‘Effect of Game Format on Heart Rate, Activity Profile, and Player Involvement in Elite and Recreational Youth Players’.

20. Pawlowski et al., ‘“Like a Football Camp for Boys”. A Qualitative Exploration of Gendered Activity Patterns in Children’s Self-organized Play during School Recess’.

21. Nielsen, Children’s Daily Physical Activity – Patterns and the Influence of Sociocultural Factors.

22. Often children of Low SEP and/or ethnic minority background Nielsen et al., ‘Predisposed to Participate? The Influence of Family Socio-economic Background on Children’s Sports Participation and Daily Amount of Physical Activity’; Nielsen, Children’s Daily Physical Activity – Patterns and the Influence of Sociocultural Factors.

23. Pawlowski et al., ‘“Like a Football Camp for Boys”. A Qualitative Exploration of Gendered Activity Patterns in Children´s Self-organized Play during School Recess’.

24. Ibid.; Nielsen et al., ‘School Playground Facilities as a Determinant of Children’s Daily Activity – A Cross-sectional Study of Danish Primary School Children’.