Sedentary Behaviour and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-analysis
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Child & Adolescent Behavior
Abstract
Background: A growing body of research is emerging examining the associations between sedentary behaviour
and mental health in young people. The magnitude of the impact sedentary behaviour has on the mental health of
young people has not been examined, though this has been investigated for physical health conditions. The aim of
this article is to examine the associations between sedentary behaviour and mental health in young people aged
5-18 years of age using meta-analysis.
Methods: Published studies in the English language were located via manual and computerised searches of
PubMed, Science Direct, SPORTDiscus, PsychINFO, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google
Scholar databases. Included were observational studies assessing an association between at least one sedentary
behaviour and at least one aspect of mental health in young people aged 5-18 years. Effect sizes (ESs) were
calculated for each study and an overall effect size was computed. Average effect sizes were also calculated for
moderator variables.
Results: Thirty-five studies were included (n=373,512); most studies examined screen-time as sedentary
behaviour and five mental health outcomes were identified (depression, anxiety, self-esteem, psychological distress,
and quality of life). The summary effect was small and significant (ES = -0.30, 95% confidence intervals = -0.20,
-0.45, p<0.001), suggesting that sedentary behaviour is negatively associated with mental health in young people.
Moderator analysis showed that television viewing had the largest effect size (ES = -0.47, 95% confidence intervals
= -0.35, -0.62, p<0.001). Moreover, depression seems to be the main mental health outcome affected by sedentary
behaviour (ES = 0.55, 95% confidence intervals = 0.42, 0.68, p<0.001).
Conclusions: There was a small but a significant negative association between sedentary behaviour and mental
health. High levels of sedentary behaviour are associated with increased depressive symptoms. This finding is
consistent with a systematic review on adults which indicated that sedentary behaviour is significantly associated
with mental health problems.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Sedentary behavior, Sitting time, Computers games